/£ 


THE   LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


•;   •  .MV.U- 


THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 


THE    LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 
THOMAS    JEFFERSON 


BY 

THOMAS    E.   WATSON 

Author  of  "The  Story  of  France,"  "Napoleon,"  Etc. 


NEW   YORK 

D.    APPLETON   AND   COMPANY 
MCMIII 


V\/3 


COPYRIGHT,  1903,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Published,  October,  190S 


DEDICATION 

BECAUSE  HE  HAS  CONSECRATED  HIS  WEALTH,  TALENT, 
AND  ENERGIES  TO  THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  CONDITIONS 
UNDER  WHICH  THE  MASSES  OF  OUR  PEOPLE  LIVE;  BECAUSE 
HE  HAS  SHOWN  AN  EARNEST,  FEARLESS,  AND  CONSISTENT 
INTEREST  IN  THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  WEAK  AND  OPPRESSED  ; 
BECAUSE  HE  IS  TO-DAY  WORKING  WITH  SPLENDID  ABILITY 
ALONG  THE  SAME  LINES  WHICH  MR.  JEFFERSON  MARKED 
OUT  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO,  I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK  TO 

WILLIAM   RANDOLPH   HEARST 


802106 


PREFACE 


BY  far  the  greater  number  of  books  treating  of 
American  history  and  biography  have  been  written 
by  Northern  men.  Southern  men  of  the  Old  Regime 
were  not  much  given  to  the  writing  of  books,  and 
when  the  man  of  New  England  strode  forward,  pen 
in  hand,  nominated  himself  custodian  of  our  na 
tional  archives  and  began  to  compile  the  record, 
nobody  seriously  contested  the  office.  This  being 
so,  it  happened  almost  inevitably  that  New  England 
got  handsome  treatment  in  our  national  histories. 
Tended  by  the  reverential  hands  of  her  own  sons, 
her  historical  graves  have  been  kept  very  green  in 
deed.  The  microscope,  applied  to  every  historical 
scene  and  character  in  New  England,  has  let  no 
excellence  escape  its  magnifying  power.  This  was 
very  natural.  The  New  England  author,  by  the 
sheer  strength  of  environment,  education,  heredity, 
inborn  prejudice,  and  preference,  saw  everything 
from  a  New  England  point  of  view,  and  as  it  ap 
peared  to  him  so  he  colored  the  record. 

Nobody  denies  that  New  England  deserved  good 
treatment  in  our  histories.  Her  record  is  one  of 
glory,  and  her  sons  have  the  right  to  be  proud  of 

vii 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

it.  No  patriotic  American  would  want  to  detract 
from  her  merit,  even  if  he  could.  None  could  do  BO, 
even  if  he  would.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the  his 
tory  of  New  England  is  not  the  history  of  the  whole 
Union. 

The  criticism  which  can  be  leveled  justly  at  so 
many  of  the  alleged  histories  of  our  country  is  that 
they  are  not  national.  They  tell,  with  fulness  and 
power,  the  story  of  New  England;  but  too  often 
they  ignore  the  South  and  the  West.  Very  fre 
quently  they  are  cruelly  unjust  both  to  the  South 
and  the  West. 

This  is  to  be  deplored.  It  can  not  be  to  the  per 
manent  best  interests  of  our  common  country  that 
any  section  thereof  should  be  misrepresented.  All 
true  patriots  must  realize  the  vital  importance  of 
harmonious  relations  between  North  and  South, 
East  and  West.  Any  book  whose  tendency  is  to  in 
flame  section  against  section,  and  to  leave  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  a  rankling  sense  of  wrong,  is  a 
dangerous  book. 

I  can  conceive  of  nothing  more  ominous  of  future 
trouble  than  the  continued  growth  of  purely  sec 
tional  literature.  As  long  as  Northern  authors 
"  write  at  "  the  South,  and  Southern  authors  "  write 
back  at "  the  North,  we  are  cultivating  perilous 
conditions.  Upon  the  fertile  seed-bed  of  sectional 
prejudice  and  jealousy  such  books  are  broadcasting 
the  seed  of  strife  whose  harvest  will  be  gathered  in 

viii 


PREFACE 

the  years  to  come.  Surely  it  is  possible  to  tell  the 
story  of  our  Kepublic  as  we  would  write  that  of 
France  or  England.  What  American  author  would 
think  of  the  sectional  divisions  in  France,  or  Ger 
many,  if  he  were  engaged  in  compiling  the  record  of 
either?  How  absurd  it  would  be  to  warp  such  a 
narrative  to  please  a  local  prejudice! 

Yet  American  history  suffers  from  precisely  this 
method  of  treatment.  Some  Northern  histories  are 
so  offensive  to  the  South  that  no  Southern  man  can 
read  them.  Some  Southern  books  are  equally 
offensive  to  our  brethren  of  the  North. 

In  The  Life  and  Times  of  Jefferson  I  have  made 
an  earnest  effort  to  deal  fairly  with  the  man,  the 
facts,  the  times,  the  different  sections — his  friends 
and  his  enemies. 

I  have  tried  to  give  New  England  her  just  dues 
— which  are  great.  And  I  have  likewise  tried  to  do 
justice  to  the  South,  whose  fair  proportion  of  the 
toil  and  the  glory  is  too  frequently  denied. 

Without  detracting  from  the  one  section,  I  have 
endeavored  to  exalt  the  other.  Instead  of  taking 
away  a  single  one  of  the  treasures  of  our  national 
history,  my  purpose  has  been  to  bring  neglected  ad 
ditions  to  the  casket.  No  accepted  national  hero 
has  been  ignored,  but  I  have  endeavored  to  show 
that  there  are  others  whose  names  deserve  a  greater 
prominence  than  they  have  always  enjoyed. 

In  other  words,  my  effort  has  been  to  make  the 

ix 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

book  national,  not  sectional.    How  far  I  have  suc 
ceeded,  the  reader  will  judge. 

In  the  preparation  of  The  Life  and  Times  of 
Jefferson,  the  author  has  used  every  known  source 
of  information.  The  leading  histories,  the  biogra 
phies,  the  memoirs,  volumes  of  correspondence,  etc., 
he  has  consulted  them  all,  so  far  as  he  is  aware  of 
their  existence. 

Before  the  completion  of  the  work,  the  author 
visited  the  community  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  lived 
and  died. 

He  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  full  and  free  conver 
sations  with  Dr.  Wilson  Carey  Nicholas  Randolph, 
the  great-grandson  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  is 
familiar  with  all  the  family  traditions,  and  who  is 
himself  a  gentleman  of  rare  mental  gifts. 

Another  valuable  source  of  information  was  the 
venerable  Jesse  Maury,  now  ninety-three  years  of 
age,  but  who  yet  retains  possession  of  his  mental 
and  physical  vigor.  This  most  estimable  citizen  was 
a  member  of  the  volunteer  escort  which  rode  with 
Lafayette  on  his  last  visit  to  Monticello.  He  is  per 
haps  the  only  man  now  living  who  can  claim  a  per 
sonal  and  vivid  recollection  of  both  Lafayette  and 
Jefferson. 

The  author,  of  course,  made  his  pilgrimage  to 
Monticello,  where  he  was  courteously  shown  several 
of  the  rooms  of  the  mansion  by  Mr.  L.  N.  Levy, 
brother  of  the  proprietor. 

x 


PREFACE 

The  house  yet  shows  many  signs  of  the  decay 
into  which  it  fell  during  the  troubled  period  of  the 
Civil  War  and  the  years  which  followed,  although 
its  owner  has  spent  large  sums  in  its  restoration. 

Mount  Vernon,  the  home  of  Washington,  is  not 
used  by  strangers  to  his  blood  as  a  private  resi 
dence.  The  Hermitage,  the  home  of  Andrew  Jack 
son,  is  not  used  as  a  private  residence.  And  Monti- 
cello,  the  home  of  Jefferson,  seems  sadly  desecrated 
when  it  is  used  for  private  purposes. 

The  same  spirit  of  veneration  for  the  mighty 
dead  which  consecrates  Mount  Vernon  and  The 
Hermitage  should  rescue  Monticello. 

THOMAS  E.  WATSON. 
THOMSON,  GA.,  July,  1903. 


xi 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

PAGB 

Yorktown  founded — Jefferson's  ancestry — His  youth  and  education 
—The  Indian  chief— The  "  old  regime  "  in  Virginia— The  Vir 
ginian  gentleman  of  the  "  old  school" — William  and  Mary  Col 
lege— Dr.  Small — Governor  Fauquier— Fiddling,  dancing,  and 
studying — Jefferson  graduates  and  reads  law — Personal  appear 
ance  and  habits — His  friendships — Dabney  Carr,  the  Jonathan 
of  the  David — A  dream  and  what  came  of  it  .  .  .  1 

CHAPTER  II 

BEGINNINGS    OF   THE   REVOLUTION 

Origins  of  Revolutionary  War — u  Protection  "  run  mad— Current 
events — Attempt  to  found  a  republic  in  Louisiana — Pontiac  on 
the  war-path — Plays  a  wonderful  ball-game  and  wins  an  English 
fort 27 

CHAPTER  III 

STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

England  passes  the  Stamp  Act— North  Carolina  leads  a  revolt- 
Patrick  Henry — James  Otis— Henry's  great  speech — Jefferson 
present— Jefferson  a  lawyer — Those  minute,  voluminous  diaries 
— Lawyers'  fees  then  and  now — Webster,  Pinckney,  Wirt,  Ran 
dolph  39 

CHAPTER  IV 

IN    THE   LEGISLATURE 

Jefferson  elected  to  State  Legislature— Lord  Botetourt  the  new 
governor— Jefferson  gets  a  gentle  rebuke — Patriotic  resolutions 
passed — Botetourt  disbands  the  rebels — Meeting  at  the  tavern — 
Boycott  resolutions — The  author  pays  attention  in  a  friendly 
way  to  William  Eleroy  Curtis— Jefferson  and  slavery — Shadwell 

burned— Monticello  begun 60 

xiii 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  V 

REVOLT    IN   NORTH    CAROLINA 

PAGE 

The  North  Carolina  Regulators — Battle  of  Great  Alamance  Creek — 

Woodrow  Wilson's  book 73 

CHAPTER  VI 

MARRIAGE   AND    MONTICELLO 

Jefferson  in  lore — Marries  a  handsome  widow,  who  is  supposed  to 
be  rich— Happy  married  life  at  Monticello— The  fatal  British 
debt 87 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

Rum  and  the  slave  trade — Navigation  Acts  enforced — The  burning  of 
the  Gaspee — Richard  Henry  Lee  proposes  Committee  of  Corre 
spondence — Dabney  Carr  lays  corner-stone  of  the  Republic — His 
death — Tea  duties  and  tea  ships — Charleston,  Boston— Tea  par- 
ties  at  both  places — Virginia  burgesses — Jefferson  an  extremist 
—Boston— General  Congress— Burning  of  the  Peggy  Stewart 
— Dunmore's  Indian  War — Logan's  speech  ....  94 

CHAPTER  VIII 

JEFFERSON   AT   MONTICELLO 

Jefferson  at  Monticello— His  passion  for  building  and  improving — 
Violin  practise — Old-time  music  and  dancing — John  Randolph, 
the  royalist— Parts  with  his  celebrated  violin  and  goes  into  exile  113 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE   CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

Continental  Congress— Jefferson  heads  Committee  of  Safety- 
Patrick  Henry—"  We  must  fight !  "—George  Washington  heads 
military — Dunmore  and  the  powder — Henry  as  a  rebel  leader — 
North's  Conciliatory  Proposition  —  Jefferson  in  Congress — 
Bnnker  Hill — Growth  of  independent  spirit — Washington,  Sam 
Adams,  Wesley,  Franklin,  Richard  Henry  Lee — Lord  Dunmore 
takes  to  the  ships 123 

CHAPTER  X 

AFFAIRS   IN   GEORGIA 

The  Colony  of  Georgia — Conditions  there — Indian  wars — Weak, 
but  did  her  part — Provisional  Congress— Bullock  made  Chief 
Magistrate — Royal  governor  driven  out — Lachlan  Mclntosh — 

Joseph  Habersham 133 

xiv 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XI 

PATRICK   HENRY    IN   COMMAND 

PAGE 

Patrick  Henry  Commander-in-chief  in  Virginia— Dunmore's  ravages 
— Fight  at  Great  Bridge — Falmouth  and  Norfolk  destroyed — 
Paine' s  Common  Sense — North  Carolina  leads  for  independ 
ence —  Virginia  —  Thomas  Nelson,  George  Mason,  Richard 
Henry  Lee — American  triumph  at  Fort  Sullivan — Moultrie,  the 
fearless — Sergeant  Jasper — Sergeant  McDaniel  .  .  .  140 

CHAPTER  XII 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

New  England  "histories"  provincial — George  Washington — Sketch 

of  his  career — Made  General -in-chief         .....     146 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   DECLARATION 

Congress  feels  popular  impulse— Independence  declared— Cornelius 
Harnet— Mecklenburg  Resolutions— Jefferson  writes  the  Decla 
ration — How  it  was  received  .......  157 

CHAPTER  XIV 

JEFFERSON    IN   VIRGINIA 

France  stealthily  offers  friendship — Money  given  on  the  sly — Silas 
Deane— -Beaumarchais— Jefferson  as  a  reformer  in  Virginia — 
Divorces  Church  from  State — Entails  and  primogeniture  abol 
ished — The  old  English  home — The  true  spirit  of  democracy  .  165 

CHAPTER  XV 

RELIGION   AND    SLAVERY 

Religious  persecution— Tithes — Barbarous  law — Jefferson  for  tol 
eration — for  emancipation — for  state  education— Family  matters 
— Saratoga  prisoners — Fiddling  and  amusing  themselves  at  Mon- 
ticello 177 

CHAPTER  XVI 

GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA 

Jefferson  elected  Governor  of  Virginia — John  Page — Panoramic 
view  of  Revolutionary  War — Lexington,  Concord,  Bunker  Hill 
—March  to  Canada— Long  Island— Nathan  Hale— White  Plains 
-—Lafayette— Trenton— Arnold— Paine— Washington  .  .  185 

XV 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XVII 

PAUL   JONES 

PAGB 

Paul  Jones — His  daring  cruise — His  marvelous  victory  over  the 

Serapis 193 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

WAR   IN   THE    SOUTH 

Benedict  Arnold's  raid  to  Richmond — War  in  Southern  States — 

Heroic  leaders — Unrecorded  battles  and  victories      .        .        .    203 

CHAPTER  XIX 

KING'S  MOUNTAIN 
The  ride  of  the  Southern  Volunteers  to  King's  Mountain — Decisive 

victory 207 

CHAPTER  XX 

YORKTOWN 

Electrical  influence  of  King's  Mountain — The  Cowpens— John  Eager 
Howard,  Williams,  Washington,  Daniel  Morgan — Lord  Corn- 
wallis  and  General  Greene — The  great  chase — The  tables 
turned — Battle  at  Guilford  Court-House — Cornwallis  in  Vir 
ginia—Takes  position  at  Yorktown — Is  hemmed  in — John  Lau- 
rens  and  French  aid— "  The  work  is  done  "  .  .  .  .212 

CHAPTER  XXI 

THE    SOUTH   IN   THE   WAR 

Thomas  Nelson— British  debts— The  Southern  States  during  the  war 
— Some  comparisons — The  famous  proposition  of  Governor 
Rutledge 217 

CHAPTER  XXII 

GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

The  Northwestern  border— George  Rogers  Clark— March  to  Kas- 
kaskia— Vincennes— The  "  Hannibal  of  the  West  "—Fort  Jef 
ferson  ...  ........  223 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

IN  RETIREMENT 

Jefferson's  troubles — Blamed  for  British  inroads — Threat  of  im 
peachment—Death  of  his  daughter— Death  of  his  wife — Retires 
from  public  life — Writes  Notes  on  Virginia  ....  233 

xvi 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

IN   CONGRESS 

PAQB 

Congress  nominates  Jefferson  as  minister  to  France — Does  not  serve 

— Elected  to  Congress— Services  on  committees        .         .        .     237 

CHAPTER   XXV 

MINISTER   TO   FRANCE 

Jefferson  accepts  foreign  mission— Goes  to  France— Services  and 
occupation  there — Goes  to  London — Coldly  received — Tours 
England 241 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE   BARBARY   PIRATES 

Negotiations  with  Barbary  powers — Truth  of  that  situation  explained 

— Washington's  letters  to  Mohammedan  rulers  ....     247 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

HIS    SERVICES    ABROAD 

Jefferson's  official  labors — Results— Unofficial  work— Usefulness — 

Breaks  wrist  and  quits  fiddling   .......     255 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION 

Travels  in  France — Studies  conditions  of  the  people— His  wrath 
against  the  tyrants  who  abused  their  power— The  King,  the 
noble,  the  priest,  and  the  victims— Beginnings  of  French  Revo 
lution—Jefferson  and  the  reformers  .  ....  262 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

RETURN   TO    MONTICELLO 

Jefferson  and  his  daughters — The  convent — Jefferson  and  Adams  at 

Amsterdam — Travels  on  the  Rhine — Returns  to  Monticello        .     270 

CHAPTER  XXX 

DEMOCRACY    IN   VIRGINIA 

Origins  of  American  institutions— Puritan  and  Cavalier— Settlement 
of  Virginia — John  Smith  and  democracy -General  Courts  in 
London — Jamestown  Assembly  of  1619 — Home  rule  demanded 
— Virginia's  treaty  with  Cromwell— Nathaniel  Bacon  .  .  277 

l  xvii 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

BEGINNINGS    OF   THE    REPUBLIC 

FAQK 

First  step  toward  organizing  the  Republic — Congress  seeks  help — 
Indians  pacified — Canadian  Catholics  solicited — France— Covert 
methods— Paine— Franklin  .  .  ; 283 

CHAPTER   XXXII 

ARTICLES     OF   CONFEDERATION 

Articles  of  Confederation — Internal  struggles — Shay's  Rebellion — 
Steps  toward  Constitutional  Convention— Washington,  Madi 
son,  Hamilton,  Jay — Edmund  Randolph 290 

CHAPTER   XXXIII 

THE    CONSTITUTION 

Hamilton's  plan  of  Constitution — Plan  of  Randolph — Compromises — 
Patrick  Henry — Jay's  treaty  with  Spain — Debate  in  Virginia 
Convention — Fateful  letters  that  were  delayed — An  agree 
ment  between  sovereign  States 297 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 
IN  WASHINGTON'S  CABINET 

Jefferson  called  to  Washington's  Cabinet— Hamilton  and  his  policy — 
His  class  legislation  and  its  purpose — Dupes  Jefferson  on 
assumption — Antagonism  between  the  two  ....  310 

CHAPTER  XXXV 

THE   GENET    EPISODE 

Straining  for  an  English  alliance — Genet  and  his  mission — Two  sides 
to  that — Misrepresentations — Hamilton's  hard  ingratitude  and 
his  injustice  to  France — Newspaper  warfare — Freneau — Jeffer 
son  stands  to  his  friends  in  spite  of  Washington  and  Hamilton 
— Resigns — Criticism  answered — The  cotton-gin  .  .  .  322 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

AT   MONTICELLO    AGAIN 

Jefferson  at  home — Dilapidation  at  Monticello — Martha  Jefferson 
marries — Manner  of  life  at  Monticello — Jefferson  as  inventor 
— Mazzei  letter — Tribute  to  Washington 340 

xviii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXXVII 

ADAMS    AS   PRESIDENT 

PAGE 

John  Adams  elected  President — Inherited  difficulties — Troubles  with 
France— Gallant  James  Monroe — Thomas  Paine  in  prison— Jay's 
treaty  with  England— Talleyrand  and  the  X.  Y.  Z.  matter— Brit 
ish  outrages— War  fever  against  France— Dr.  Logan  as  peace 
maker—Adams  foils  Hamilton,  and  there  is  no  war  .  .  .  350 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

Federalism  rampant — Alien  and  Sedition  laws — Jefferson  and  Madi 
son — Kentucky  and  Virginia  Resolutions — Edmund  Randolph's 
opinion — Jefferson  as  Vice-President—Was  he  timid,  weak,  and 
vacillating,  as  Messrs.  Lodge  and  Roosevelt  have  agreed  that  he 
was? — His  work  his  vindication 362 

CHAPTER  XXXIX 

DEFEAT   FOR   THE   FEDERALISTS 

Party  feeling  —  Hamilton's  confession  —  John  Adams  —  Career  of 
Matthew  Lyon — New  York  goes  against  Federalists— Cabinet 
changes— Oliver  Wolcott — Aaron  Burr — "Midnight  Appoint 
ments  " — John  Adams's  isolation— He  quits  the  field  .  .  .  370 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

The  electoral  system — Tie  between  Jefferson  and  Burr— The  con 
test—Hamilton's  part  in  it — Bayard— Political  standards — Some 
comparisons— What  was  Burr's  reputation  at  that  time  ?  .  .  382 

CHAPTER   XLI 

JEFFERSON   PRESIDENT 

Crisis  pending— Talk  of  fighting— Who  decided  the  contest  in  favor 
of  Jefferson? — Decisive  motives — Lyon,  Morris,  Hamilton,  and 
Bayard — Jefferson  inaugurated — Changes  democratic  manners 
—Reforms  Federal  judiciary — Undemocratic  ....  394 

xix 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 


CHAPTER  XLII 

THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

PAGE 

Jefferson  a  far-seeing  statesman — George  McDuffie — Daniel  Webster 
— The  Western  wilderness — Jefferson  and  the  Louisiana  terri 
tory — Napoleon— Livingston — Monroe — The  Miranda  scheme — 
Louisiana  purchase  outside  the  Constitution — New  England 
threatens  secession — Lewis  and  Clarke's  expedition — Elaine — 
Roosevelt — The  U.  S.  ship-of-war  George  Washington  com 
pelled  to  fly  the  "  pirate"  flag  and  to  bear  "  piratical"  despatches 
— Jefferson's  vigor 408 

CHAPTER  XLIII 

JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

Character  sketch  of  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke — His   "royal" 

ancestry,  eccentric  character,  and  meteoric  career     .        .        .     420 

CHAPTER  XLIV 

BURR,    ADAMS,    HAMILTON 

John  Adams  as  Vice-President — Thomas  Jefferson  as  Vice-President 
— Aaron  Burr  as  Vice-President— His  farewell  address  to  the 
Senate — Hamilton  stranded — Is  killed  by  Burr — Morris's  opinion 
of  Hamilton 430 

CHAPTER  XLV 

BRITISH   AGGRESSIONS. — THE   EMBARGO 

Electoral  law  changed— France  and  England  at  war — Neutral  com 
merce  antagonized — Great  Britain's  outrageous  treatment  of  the 
United  States— The  Embargo— Force  Bill— New  England  pros 
pers  —  Washington's  mistake  in  policy  —  Results  —  Roosevelt's 
denunciation  of  Jefferson— Andrew  Jackson — Battle  of  New 
Orleans 439 

CHAPTER  XLVI 
BURR'S  TRIAL. — JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

Burr  adrift— Turns  conspirator — What  was  his  scheme? — Wilkinson 
betrays  Burr — Collapse  of  the  plot — Burr  tried  for  treason — 
Treated  as  a  martyr ;  and  is  saved  by  John  Marshall — Jefferson 
declines  third  term — Announces  a  principle — Jefferson  and  his 
detractors — Results  of  his  Administration  .  .  .  .  .  447 

XX 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XLVII 

DEBTS   AND    GUESTS   AT    MONTICELLO 

PAGB 

Jefferson's  devotion  to  his  daughters — Martha  alone  remains  as  he 
goes  into  retirement — Jefferson's  finances — Heavily  cumbered 
with  debt — Lavish  hospitality — Everybody  goes  to  Monticello — 
"  Company  "  eats  Jefferson  out  of  house  and  home— He  runs 
away  to  escape  the  nuisance — Has  spent  a  lifetime  and  a  for 
tune  building  a  house  for  miscellaneous  visitors  to  live  in  .  .  459 

CHAPTER  XLVIII 

THE   WAR   OF   1812 

Federalist  historians  and  their  misrepresentations — Treason  in  New 
England — General  Hull  at  Detroit — Bladensburg — Washington 
sacked — Baltimore  saved — Croghan  at  Fort  Stephenson — Col 
onel  William  Cone,  of  Georgia — Roosevelt  and  the  Rough  Riders 
— Mr.  Madison's  troubles — Jefferson  founds  the  Navy  which 
wins  glory  in  the  War  of  1812 470 

CHAPTER  XLIX 

RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS 

Jefferson's  religious  convictions — A  Deist — Perhaps  a  Unitarian — 
Rejects  dogma  of  Trinity — Regards  Christ  as  a  reformer,  a 
good  man,  who  was  put  to  death  because  he  threatened  the 
status  quo  of  his  own  day — Jefferson's  interest  in  the  young — 
His  counsels — Champion  of  education — Founds  University  of 
Virginia  ...........  481 

CHAPTER  L 

POLITICAL   OPINIONS 

Europe  after  the  downfall  of  Napoleon— The  Holy  Alliance— How 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  came  to  be  proclaimed— Views  on  finance 
— State  rights  and  the  tariff — Other  political  opinions  .  .  490 

CHAPTER  LI 

LAST   DAYS   AND   DEATH 

Later  Years— Reconciliation  with  Adams— Debts— Visit  of  Lafayette 

-Death 504 

xxi 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

APPENDIX 

Inaugural  Address  of  Thomas  Jefferson  as  President  of  the  United 

States,  March  4,  1801 '       f  519 

INDEX     ...  525 


XX11 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON Frontispiece 

MONTICELLO,    JEFFERSON'S    HOME     NEAR    CHARLOTTES- 
VILLE,  VA 70 

THE  DRAWING-ROOM  AT  MONTICELLO 120 

THE    HOUSE    IN    PHILADELPHIA    IN    WHICH   JEFFERSON 
WROTE  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE     .        .160 

FRANCIS  MARION 204 

JOHN  LAURENS 214 

GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK 230 

THOMAS  SUMTER 286 

ISAAC  SHELBY 342 

JEFFERSON'S  ARRIVAL  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE    .        .        .  398 

ANDREW  JACKSON 448 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA  .  486 


THE   LIFE   AND  TIMES   OP 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


CHAPTER    I 

YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

IN  the  year  1691,  buying  and  selling  in  Virginia 
had  to  be  done  in  markets  established  by  law.  A 
further  act  of  the  Legislature  created  ports  of 
entry  and  clearing;  and  all  goods  and  products 
brought  into  the  colony,  or  sent  out,  were  liable  to 
forfeiture  if  they  did  not  pass  through  these  ports. 

Under  this  Act  for  Ports  of  1691,  a  fifty-acre 
field,  belonging  to  Benjamin  Read,  was  laid  off  into 
eighty-five  lots;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  his 
toric  Yorktown. 

A  list  of  the  original  lot  buyers  shows  the  names 
of  Governor  Francis  Nicholson,  Nathaniel  Bacon, 
Sr.,  Duddley  Digges,  and  Thomas  Jefferson. 

The  father  of  this  part-founder  of  Yorktown  had 
emigrated  from  near  Mount  Snowdon,  in  Wales, 
and  had  represented  Flower  de  Hundred  in  the 
first  legislative  assembly  of  white  men  which  ever 
convened  on  the  American  continent — the  James 
town  Assemblv  of  1619. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Captain  Thomas  Jefferson  of  Osborne's,  on  the 
James,  was  the  grandson  of  John  Jefferson,  the  bur 
gess  of  J619;  and  a  younger  son  of  this  Captain 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  Peter,  the  father  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  of  Monticello. 

In  those  days,  lands  and  slaves  were  entailed 
upon  the  oldest  son;  and  nothing  less  than  an  act 
of  the  Legislature  could  bring  the  property  upon 
the  market. 

Peter  Jefferson  being  a  younger  son,  the  family 
home  descended  to  the  older  brother,  who  remained 
at  Osborne's,  while  Peter  himself  went  forth  into 
the  world  to  win  his  own  way  to  fortune. 

To  this  fact  alone  seems  to  be  due  the  im 
pression  that  Peter  Jefferson  was  a  man  of  inferior 
social  position.  Biographers,  having  no  eyes  for 
the  head  of  the  family  at  Osborne's,  follow  Peter  as 
he  surveys  land,  locates  state  grants,  fights  In 
dians,  and  makes  a  new  home  on  the  western  bor 
der;  and  they  get  the  idea  that  the  Jeffersons  were 
not  people  of  the  first  class. 

There  is  no  evidence  whatever  to  support  the 
assertion. 

Peter  Jefferson  had  practically  the  same  educa 
tion  as  George  Washington,  adopted  the  business 
of  land  surveying  as  Washington  did,  and  married, 
like  Washington,  a  lady  of  the  highest  social  rank. 

While  he  got  no  immense  fortune  by  her,  as 
Washington  won  with  the  Widow  Custis,  he  proved 

2 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

himself  not  the  less  a  nobleman  in  that  he  married 
where  he  could  expect  nothing  save  the  beautiful 
young  girl  he  loved. 

And,  after  all,  Jane  Randolph  brought  to  her 
spouse  the  richer  dowry,  for  she  bore  him  children. 

The  suggestion  so  often  made  that  Washington 
and  Jefferson  gained  social  recognition  by  marriage 
is  an  idle  one.  They  were  cadets  of  their  houses, 
but  in  respectability  their  position  was  as  good  as 
that  held  by  anybody. 

Wealth  was  not  the  trade-mark  of  a  gentleman 
in  Colonial  Virginia;  and  much  of  what  has  been 
written  about  the  social  gulf  which  separated  the 
smaller  landowners  from  the  "  Tobacco  Lords  "  is 
sheer  nonsense.  Sturdy  yeomen  of  the  neighbor 
hood  entered  the  stately  homes  of  the  Nelsons, 
Pages,  Byrds,  or  Carters  on  easy  terms  of  equality; 
and  they  were  not  in  the  slightest  degree  abashed 
by  the  marble  mantelpieces,  the  grand  stairways, 
or  the  brave  display  of  plate  on  the  sideboards. 

There  is  an  instance  on  record  which  represents 
a  Frenchman  of  the  nobility  coming  to  a  Virginia 
inn  and  asking  to  have  his  meals  served  in  his  room. 
The  landlord,  who  was  as  much  of  a  gentleman  as 
any  Boiling,  Blair,  or  Cary,  told  the  foreign  aristo 
crat  that  he  must  eat  at  the  common  table  where 
everybody  else  ate,  or  drive  on.  The  haughty  duke 
drove  on. 

Such  roaring  blades  as  Patrick  Henry,  whose 

3 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

father  was  one  of  the  small  landowners,  was  just 
as  welcome  at  the  mansion  of  a  Colonel  Nathan 
Dandridge,  to  frolic  away  the  Christmas — fiddling, 
dancing,  telling  funny  stories — as  the  son  of  the 
proudest  nabob. 

The  line  of  admitted  equality  was  drawn  at  man 
ual  labor,  where,  of  course,  it  never  ought  to  be 
drawn.  But  this  false  standard  was  not  so  entirely 
due  to  negro  slavery  as  many  writers  claim.  There 
was  no  slave  system  in  Europe;  and  yet  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany,  the  citizen  whose  condition 
compelled  him  to  earn  his  daily  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  his  face  was  held  to  be  the  social  inferior  of  the 
man  who  ate  the  bread  earned  in  the  sweat  of 
somebody  else's  face. 

A  degrading  standard?  Of  course  it  was;  but 
it  did  not  originate  in  the  southern  colonies,  and  its 
origin  had  no  connection  with  negro  slavery. 

In  our  mother-country  of  Great  Britain,  whose 
boast  it  was  that  no  slave  could  breathe  her  air  and 
remain  a  slave,  a  cadet  of  the  highest  house  in  the 
land — Pembroke,  Percy,  Douglas,  or  Howard — 
would  have  lost  caste  had  he  earned  his  living  as 
God  had  said  he  should.  This  false  principle  upon 
which  European  society  was  organized  came  over 
here  with  our  ancestors;  was,  in  fact,  one  strong 
motive  for  the  introduction  of  negro  slavery,  and 
to  a  very  considerable  extent  is  the  unwritten 
social  law  at  this  day. 

4 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

Rail-splitters,  tenants  of  log-cabins,  shoema 
kers,  canal-boat  drivers,  map  pedlers,  wood-cut 
ters,  fur  traders,  and  plowboys  are  strong  on  the 
hustings;  but  if  society  ever  forgives  them  at  all,  it 
is  because  the  Statute  of  Limitations  has  made 
their  crime  of  manual  labor  stale,  and  there  is  a 
certainty  that  the  offense  will  not  be  repeated. 

Peter  Jefferson  lived  on  the  very  borders  of  civil 
ization.  He  had  gone  West  and  patented  a  thou 
sand  acres  of  land  in  the  wilderness  on  the  Ri- 
vanna,  at  a  time  when  the  Indian  trails  were  still 
warm  in  the  woods,  and  when  the  adjoining  county 
was  thronged  with  savages.  In  addition  to  his 
one  thousand  acres  of  land  he  secured  four  hundred 
acres  from  the  adjoining  tract  of  his  friend,  Will 
iam  Randolph — a  gift  which  was  jovially  disguised 
as  a  sale  whose  consideration  was  "  Henry  Weath- 
ersbourne's  biggest  bowl  of  arrack  punch."  Upon 
this  smaller  tract  he  built  a  strong,  comfortable 
dwelling,  which  had  four  rooms  on  the  first  floor 
and  several  more  in  the  attic. 

Having  cleared  away  parts  of  the  forest,  and 
turned  wilderness  into  plowed  fields,  he  went  back 
to  the  old  settlements  for  his  bride. 

This  was  Jane  Randolph,  the  daughter  of  Isham 
Randolph,  of  Dungeness,  Adjutant-General  of  Vir 
ginia. 

There  were  no  prouder  people  than  these  Ran 
dolphs;  and  they  were  educated,  refined,  and  hospi- 

5 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

table.  They  owned  innumerable  acres  of  land,  fine 
houses,  hordes  of  slaves,  and  traced  their  lineage 
back  to  the  Earls  of  Murray  in  Scotland. 

Dungeness  was  one  of  the  stateliest  homes  on 
the  James;  and  it  is  said  that  a  hundred  slaves 
served  in  and  about  the  mansion. 

From  this  grand  home  Peter  Jefferson  married 
Jane  Kandolph  in  1738,  and  took  her  to  his  wilder 
ness  cottage,  which  he  named  Shadwell,  in  honor 
of  the  London  parish  in  which  she  was  born. 

Peter  Jefferson,  a  man  of  powerful  physique  and 
strong  mind,  seems  to  speedily  have  become  the 
representative  man  of  his  part  of  the  State.  He 
was  a  justice  at  the  time  when  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  office  enabled  the  court  to  practically  control 
many  of  the  civil  affairs  of  the  county;  he  was  a 
colonel  at  a  time  when  the  position  made  him  the 
military  chief  of  his  county. 

The  colonial  authorities  appointed  him  one  of 
the  commissioners  to  run  the  boundary  line  be 
tween  Virginia  and  North  Carolina;  and  he  assisted 
in  the  making  of  the  second  map  of  the  colony — 
the  first  having  been  that  made  by  John  Smith. 
He  also  represented  his  county  in  the  House  of  Bur 
gesses. 

A  rugged,  masterful  figure,  a  character  whose 
strength  and  integrity  no  one  doubted,  Peter  Jef 
ferson  was  trusted  by  the  whites,  and  followed  when 
war  was  to  be  waged  against  the  Indians;  and  the 

6 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

red  men  sought  his  advice  and  protection  when 
they  needed  leniency  or  justice  from  the  whites. 

To  administer  a  dead  man's  large  estate  hon 
estly  and  well  is  a  test  of  virtue  and  skill  whose 
severity  numbers  many  a  victim;  Peter  Jefferson 
was  tried  by  even  the  fire  of  this  ordeal  and  came 
forth  pure  gold.  He  broke  up  his  own  home,  moved 
his  family  to  Tuckahoe,  and  for  seven  years  man 
aged  the  estate  of  Colonel  William  Kandolph,  his 
early  friend  and  benefactor,  who  had  named  him 
executor  of  his  property  and  guardian  of  his  son. 
For  these  laborious  services  Mr.  Jefferson  made  no 
charge  beyond  the  support  of  himself  and  family 
while  executing  the  trust. 

Not  much  given  to  books  was  this  hardy  pioneer, 
for  his  education  had  been  slight,  and  his  life  of  toil 
and  struggle  had  left  him  few  opportunities  for 
study;  but  he  carried  several  standard  works  with 
him  into  the  wilderness,  and  of  his  Shakespeare, 
Addison,  Pope,  and  Swift  he  was  an  appreciative 
reader.  Doddridge's  Sermons  was  a  book  which  he 
rated  as  "  more  precious  than  gold;  the  best  legacy 
I  can  leave  my  children,"  for  Mr.  Jefferson  was  a 
stanch  Church  of  England  man,  served  in  the  ves 
try,  and  had  his  children  baptized  in  the  faith. 

This  earnest,  honest,  active,  progressive  man 
was  cut  off  in  his  prime — dying  of  sudden  illness 
August  17,  1757,  in  his  fiftieth  year. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  of  whose  life  and  times  we 

7 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

write,  was  the  third  child  at  Shadwell  and  was 
born  April  2,  1743,  O.  S. 

He  was  the  first  son,  and  his  proud  father  began 
to  train  him  from  infancy  for  a  career  of  usefulness. 
The  boy  was  taught  at  home  as  well  as  at  school, 
and  was  made  to  take  regular  physical  exercise  in 
the  open  air;  he  learned  to  manage  a  horse  under 
the  saddle,  and  a  boat  on  the  river.  He  was  en 
couraged  to  hunt  with  dog  and  gun,  to  dance  at 
country  balls,  and  to  enter  into  the  plays  and 
games  of  the  young. 

Peter  Jefferson  not  only  had  implicit  faith  in 
Doddridge's  Sermons,  but  he  had  a  profound  appre 
ciation  of  the  value  of  a  thorough  education.  He 
wanted  his  boy  taught  Latin,  Greek,  and  French, 
as  well  as  English;  and  he  showed  him  how  to  keep 
accounts,  instructing  him  in  the  clear,  legible,  care 
ful  penmanship  which  became  famous,  and  selected 
the  books  which  he  should  read. 

Had  he  been  specially  set  apart  and  consecrated 
to  a  great  life-work,  the  lad  could  not  have  been 
more  systematically  developed.  He  heard  his  father 
read  from  the  poems  of  Pope,  the  Spectator  of 
Addison,  and  the  dramas  of  Shakespeare.  He 
had  the  benefit  of  parental  guidance  in  getting  his 
lessons  by  the  fireside  at  night.  He  listened  to  his 
father's  sound  advice;  the  wise,  strong  man, 
deeply  experienced  in  actual  life,  gave  form  and 
direction  to  the  ideas  of  the  boy.  I  The  lad  was 

8 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

eleven  years  old  when  George  Washington,  away 
off  in  the  woods  of  the  Ohio,  fired  the  shot  which 
convulsed  the  world  and  began  wars  which  cost  the 
lives  of  a  million  men.  He  was  twelve  years  old 
when  the  French  and  Indians  annihilated  Braddock 
and  came  down  upon  the  Virginia  frontier  with 
torch  and  tomahawk;  at  which  time  his  father,  as 
colonel  of  the  militia,  led  it  against  the  red  men  in 
Augusta,  the  adjoining  county. 

The  Indians  exercised  a  fascination  over  young 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  he  ever  remained  a  friend 
to  that  hardly  used  race.  He  heard  their  chiefs 
at  his  father's  hearth  and  realized  the  profound 
pathos  of  their  fate.  He  heard  the  Cherokee  chief, 
Ontassite',  as  he  stood  in  the  glory  of  the  full  moon, 
make  his  farewell  speech  to  his  tribesmen  on  the 
night  before  he  sailed  for  England.  This  dramatic 
scene — the  brilliant  moonlight,  the  silent  audience 
of  savages,  the  tall  form  of  the  chief,  the  heart- 
moving  tones  of  his  voice — always  remained  in  Mr. 
Jefferson's  memory  as  perfect  as  a  picture. 

The  savage  whom  Mr.  Jefferson  called  Ontas 
site^  is,  in  other  books,  named  Oconostata,  and  it 
may  interest  the  reader  to  know  more  about  him. 

When  he  reached  London  he  received  marked 
attentions  from  King  George  II  and  Queen  Caro 
line. 

The  king  shook  hands  with  him,  and  drank  Hol 
lands  with  him  at  the  royal  table  in  the  palace  of 

9 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

St.  James.  The  ships,  the  troops,  the  arsenals,  the 
great  London  crowds,  were  all  shown  to  him  in 
order  that  his  mind  might  be  deeply  impressed  with 
the  power  of  the  English  people.  Queen  Caroline 
introduced  the  chief  to  the  ladies  of  her  court, 
drove  him  about  the  parks,  and  completely  capti 
vated  the  handsome,  manly  Oconostata.  He  re 
turned  home  a  warm  friend  of  the  English,  and  so 
remained  throughout  his  life. 

It  was  he  who  leased  to  the  whites,  under  Sevier 
and  Robertson,  the  lands  of  the  Watauga,  the  set 
tlement  which  was  the  beginning  of  Tennessee. 
But  when  he  realized  that  this  was  only  a  begin 
ning,  and  that  the  demands  of  the  settlers  had  no 
limits,  he  opposed  further  cessions  with  all  his  elo 
quence — vainly. 

True  to  his  British  friends,  the  Cherokee  king 
opposed  the  Americans  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  one  disaster  after  another  befell  him.  He 
was  no  match  for  such  men  as  Sevier,  Robertson, 
Shelby,  Campbell,  and  Lewis.  Finally,  the  Chero- 
kees,  weary  of  continual  losses  and  defeats,  made  a 
scapegoat  of  their  chief.  Oconostata  was  deposed, 
and  another  king  put  in  his  place. 

Had  Thomas  Jefferson  during  his  later  years 
wandered  into  the  Cherokee  country,  he  might  have 
seen  again  the  tall  Indian  whose  oratory  had 
charmed  him  that  moonlight  evening  in  Virginia  so 
many  years  before.  But  it  was  no  longer  Ocono- 

10 


YOUTH   AND  EDUCATION 

stata  the  proud,  the  strong,  the  magnetic;  it  was  a 
poor  old  beggar  Indian,  fallen  upon  evil  days,  with 
none  so  poor  as  to  do  him  reverence.  Instead  of  a 
torrent  of  eloquence,  he  would  have  heard  from 
those  lips,  now,  a  plea  for  a  measure  of  meal  or  a 
drink  of  whisky — for  the  hero  of  Jefferson's  boyish 
recollection,  the  courted  guest  of  a  British  king 
and  queen,  had  become  a  broken,  besotted,  despised, 
and  homeless  vagabond. 

Great  Britain  had  used  him  while  he  could  be  of 
use,  and  had  then  thrown  him  aside.  Had  he 
fought  for  the  colonists,  his  fate  and  that  of  his 
people  would  have  been  practically  the  same. 

No  matter  who  conquered  in  American  wars,  the 
Indian  invariably  lost  ground. 

At  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  was  fourteen  years  old,  and  had  been  attending 
school  since  the  age  of  five.  His  father  left  dying 
instructions  for  the  thorough  education  of  the  boy, 
cautioning  Mrs.  Jefferson  especially  not  to  permit 
him  to  neglect  bodily  exercise. 

"  A  thorough  classical  education  "  on  the  one 
hand,  and  "  the  exercise  requisite  for  the  body's 
development "  on  the  other;  such  was  the  good  old 
way  and  simple  plan,  in  pursuance  of  which  the 
lad  already  knew  Latin,  Greek,  and  French;  already 
knew  how  to  row  a  boat,  master  a  horse,  use  a  gun, 
and  hold  his  own  in  athletic  games  and  sports. 

Peter  Jefferson  cherished  the  belief  that  those 

11 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

alone  who  were  strong  in  body  could  be  strong  and 
free  in  mind. 

This  dogma  is  safe  and  sound,  yet  has  its  excep 
tions.  A  Gladstone  must  have  his  formula  and  can 
not  live  without  it;  his  meat  must  have  just  thirty- 
two  grinds  between  his  teeth  before  it  is  swal 
lowed;  his  ax  must  chop  its  tree  in  the  park  every 
day  or  so;  and  he  must  have  his  jog-trot  on  foot 
every  afternoon. 

A  D'Israeli  will  live  by  the  opposite  rule,  will 
take  no  thirty-two  chews  on  Ms  meat,  will  chop  no 
tree,  will  endure  no  daily  jog-trot,  and  yet  in  con 
tests  of  the  mind,  in  skill  of  mental  wrestle,  will 
nearly  always  surpass  Gladstone,  keeping  the  heels 
of  that  good  formalist  in  the  air  to  an  extent  that 
shakes  one's  faith  in  formula. 

President  Roosevelt  would  probably  think  that 
the  world  was  coming  to  an  end  if  he  were  com 
pelled  to  forego  his  strenuous  physical  exercise,  his 
walks,  rides,  hunts,  and  fencing  bouts.  Yet  there 
is  Mr.  Chamberlain  on  the  other  side  of  the  water, 
who  never  walks  for  exercise,  never  mounts  a  horse, 
never  hunts,  never  touches  a  foil;  and  yet  he  ap 
pears  to  turn  off  quite  as  much  work,  appears  to 
swing  the  universe  his  way  just  about  as  often  as 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  All  of  which  merely  illustrates  the 
truth  that  no  one  formula  will  fit  in  every  case. 

We  shall  see  stalwart  Thomas  Jefferson  taking 
his  exercise  and  profiting  by  it;  we  shall  see  small 

12 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

James  Madison  neglecting  his  horse,  gun,  rowboat, 
and  jog-trot;  yet  in  the  long,  long  run  of  life  we 
shall  see  prim  little  James  putting  out  his  one 
talent  to  just  as  good  interest  as  stalwart  Thomas 
gets  on  his  five;  and  we  shall  see  Mr.  Madison  con 
versing  at  Montpelier  ever  so  cheerily  with  Harriet 
Martineau,  showing  the  brightest,  broadest  com 
prehension  of  all  current  events  and  issues,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-four,  when  Mr.  Jefferson  is  already 
dead  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  utterly  worn  out. 
Nevertheless,  the  strong  mind  in  the  strong  body 
must  be  better  than  the  strong  mind  in  the  weak 
body;  and  Peter  Jefferson's  dying  admonitions 
were  on  the  right  line. 

In  Virginia  the  clergy  of  the  established  Church 
were  paid  in  tobacco,  and  the  net  proceeds  in  cash 
were  not  too  burdensome  to  the  purse.  To  eke  out 
their  incomes,  many  of  these  ministers  of  the  Gos 
pel  opened  schools  at  their  parsonages,  the  pupils 
often  being  taken  into  their  homes  as  boarders  dur 
ing  the  terms. 

It  was  on  this  plan  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was 
given  nearly  six  years  of  his  schooling,  about  four 
years  at  the  parsonage  of  the  Rev.  William  Doug 
lass,  and  two  years  at  that  of  Kev.  James  Maury. 

At  the  former  place  he  was  charged  not  quite 
eighty  dollars  per  year  for  board  and  tuition;  at 
the  latter,  not  quite  one  hundred  dollars. 

On  January  14,  1760,  young  Jefferson  wrote  to 

13 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

his  guardian,  Mr.  John  Harvey,  expressing  the  wish 
to  leave  the  Maury  school  and  to  enter  college. 
Permission  was  given,  and  mounting  his  fine  saddle- 
horse,  the  sanguine,  ambitious  boy  rode  away  from 
Shadwell  to  Williamsburg  to  enter  William  and 
Mary,  the  oldest  college  in  America,  after  Harvard. 

From  many  different  books  we  gather  many  dif 
ferent  impressions  of  the  Virginia  of  this  period; 
and  its  capital,  Williamsburg,  appears  now  as  a 
center  of  fashion  blazing  with  splendor,  and  then 
as  a  meager  assortment  of  cheap  houses  dropped  at 
irregular  intervals  along  streets  of  mud  which  had 
no  sewers  and  no  sidewalks. 

Virginia,  like  the  other  colonies,  was  in  its  form 
ative  state,  and  the  truth  no  doubt  is  that  it  pre 
sented  every  social  contrast.  There  were  certainly 
some  grand  homes  in  the  tide-water  section,  and 
there  were  many  refined,  cultured  people. 

The  Virginian  of  the  best  type  had  no  superior 
anywhere.  He  belonged  to  that  order  of  natural 
nobility  which  depends  on  no  touch  of  royal  sword, 
owes  nothing  to  ribbons,  stars,  and  garters.  In 
this  highest  order  of  knighthood  it  was  accounted 
a  disgrace  to  be  cowardly,  mean,  or  false;  honor  out 
weighed  gold;  duty  was  a  higher  word  than  suc 
cess;  life  less  dear  than  country.  It  cultivated  a 
chivalrous  regard  for  pure  womanhood;  a  pride 
which  preferred  death  to  a  stain.  To  estimate  man 
or  woman  by  the  standard  of  wealth,  or  the  mere 

14 


YOUTH   AND  EDUCATION 

standard  of  official  position,  was  something  of 
which  the  Virginians  never  dreamed. 

He  loved  his  king — it  was  his  education;  loved 
the  church — it  was  his  inherited  creed;  loved  the 
aristocratic  organization  of  the  province — it  was 
his  environment,  he  had  known  no  other;  but,  above 
all  things,  he  held  his  self-respect,  his  independ 
ence,  his  individuality;  and  upon  his  reserved  rights 
as  a  man,  neither  king,  nor  lord,  nor  priest,  nor  fel 
low  aristocrat  might  trench,  for  it  was  sacred.  To 
protect  himself  there,  he  would  fight  anybody,  any 
time,  and  to  the  death. 

But  to  those  who  met  him  on  his  own  terms  of 
high  breeding,  there  never  was  a  man  who  was 
kinder,  truer,  or  knightlier  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word  than  was  the  Virginian  of  the  old  school. 

Nor  was  education  in  Virginia  so  much  neg 
lected  as  most  authors  contend.  There  were  no  free 
schools,  it  is  true.  Parental  responsibilities  were 
not  then  unloaded  on  teachers.  Little  boys  and 
girls,  scarcely  knee  high,  did  not  then  stagger 
through  the  streets  under  a  burden  of  school-books; 
babes  did  not  lisp  physiology,  and  education  did  not 
consist  in  mere  cramming  of  the  youthful  mind 
with  undigested  book-learning. 

But  if  the  purpose  of  any  system  of  society  and 
education  be  to  produce  men,  there  was  virtue  in  the 
colonial  system  somewhere.  Stronger,  better  men 
no  system  has  ever  produced.  The  private  tutor, 

15 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

the  parsonage  teacher,  the  private  school,  William 
and  Mary  College,  fireside  instructions,  home  train 
ing,  association  with  high-minded  people,  the  read^ 
ing  of  a  few  standard  books — accompanied  with  the 
manly  sport  of  fox-hunting,  boat-rowing,  horse 
back  riding,  hunting  with  gun  and  dog,  dancing 
at  country  parties — this  was  the  system  which 
formed  the  men  who,  in  the  day  of  trial,  were  able 
to  do  all  that  was  necessary  for  their  country, 
both  in  the  council-room  and  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Not  greater  or  truer  men  were  those  who  trod 
the  floor  at  my  Lady  Richmond's  ball  on  the  eve  of 
Waterloo  than  those  Virginians  who  danced  in  the 
Apollo  room  of  the  Williamsburg  tavern;  men  who 
were  to  sound  the  tocsin  of  revolution,  challenge 
Great  Britain  to  the  stern  issues  of  the  sword,  and 
lead  thirteen  little  colonies  up  the  arduous  road  to 
nationality  and  empire. 

Out  of  the  college  halls  of  old  William  and 
Mary  went  forth  into  the  many  fields  of  human 
endeavor  men  as  loftily  worthy  as  ever  made  good 
presidents,  good  governors,  good  Supreme  Court 
judges,  good  senators,  good  leaders  of  armies,  good 
workers  of  benign  reforms  for  the  welfare  of  the 
race.  Not  Oxford,  not  Harvard,  can  show  a 
prouder  roll  of  honor. 

It  is  true  that  there  was  a  class  of  whites  in 
Virginia,  as  in  all  other  colonies,  who  w^ere  poor, 
shiftless,  ignorant,  and  more  or  less  vicious. 

16 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

These  were  the  men  whose  recreation  it  was  to 
fight  and  carouse,  to  bite  off  ears  and  noses,  to 
gouge  out  eyes. 

The  human  brute  thrived  in  colonial  Virginia, 
just  as  he  thrives  in  twentieth  century  New  York 
and  Boston. 

How  to  eliminate  him  is  a  problem  which  may 
be  solved  when  all  of  our  foreign  missionaries 
come  home  to  stay. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Thomas  Jefferson  that  the 
plastic  period  of  his  young  manhood  was  spent  in 
a  favorable  environment.  From  his  text-books  and 
his  college  professors  he  learned  a  great  deal,  but 
what  influenced  his  opinions  chiefly  was  the  con 
tact  with  the  men  of  the  outer  world  whom  he  met 
in  social  intercourse.  He  studied — studied  hard 
and  with  system — but  he  was  no  recluse,  no  book 
worm.  The  boy  was  fresh  from  the  country,  the 
backwoods,  where  he  had  seen  almost  nobody.  His 
mother,  his  sisters,  his  little  brother,  his  rever 
end  teachers,  his  raw  schoolmates,  a  few  illiterate 
farmers  of  the  neighborhood — these  were  the  peo 
ple  he  had  come  in  contact  with  at  Shadwell. 

Now  all  was  different.  He  was  introduced  into 
polite  circles,  met  cultivated  and  experienced  men, 
met  lovely  and  refined  ladies,  felt  the  pleasure  and 
temptation  of  social  entertainments.  More  than 
that,  he  attracted  the  eye  and  won  the  heart  of  the 
governor,  Fauquier,  and  was  made  to  feel  quite  at 
3  17 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

home  at  the  governor's  palace,  where  he  often 
dined  as  a  familiar  guest  in  company  with  the  emi 
nent  lawyer,  Mr.  Wythe,  and  Dr.  Small,  the  college 
professor  whom  he  most  loved. 

Music  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  mystic 
ties  which  bound  the  college  boy  and  the  king's 
governor  together  in  friendship,  for  they  were 
both  music-makers  and  musical  enthusiasts. 

Once  a  week,  Jefferson  would  take  his  fiddle 
under  his  arm  and  go  over  to  the  palace  where  the 
amateur  band,  of  which  the  genial  Fauquier  was 
a  member,  held  its  regular  performance. 

It  was  Dr.  Small  who  introduced  Jefferson  to 
the  governor;  and  it  was  Dr.  Small  who  had  much 
to  do  with  forming  the  mind,  shaping  the  princi 
ples  of  his  favorite  student.  A  man  of  varied 
learning,  Dr.  Small  was  also  a  thinker,  bold  and 
independent,  who  had  reached  conclusions  which 
were  altogether  different  from  the  narrow,  intol 
erant,  unprogressive  views  of  the  average  profess 
or  of  his  day.  These  broad,  liberal  ideas  he  was 
fond  of  discussing  with  so  intelligent  a  listener  as 
Jefferson;  and  upon  the  student's  mind  Dr.  Small 
exerted  an  influence  "  which  probably  fixed  his 
destiny." 

Having  entered  an  advanced  class,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  completed  his  collegiate  course  in  two  years. 
What  had  he  learned  thus  far? 

Latin  and  Greek  he  had  mastered;  and  he  never 

18 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

forgot  them,  as  so  many  scholars  do.  In  his  old 
age,  when  fortune  had  taken  wings  and  political 
honors  were  things  of  the  past,  he  could  turn  again 
to  the  classics  and  forget  his  cares  in  the  charms 
of  ancient  literature.  French  he  was  not  able  to 
speak  with  any  fluency  or  success,  but  he  could 
read  it  with  ease. 

In  mathematics  he  was  at  his  best,  and  he  could 
read  off  the  most  abstruse  processes  "  with  the  facil 
ity  of  common  discourse."  This  study  also  he  kept 
up  as  long  as  he  lived;  and  he  delighted  in  applying 
its  principles  to  anything  and  everything,  large 
and  small,  useful  and  speculative,  important  and 
trivial,  sublime  and  ridiculous.  And  yet  this  mas 
ter  of  the  craft,  like  Napoleon,  rarely  added  up  a 
column  of  figures,  or  cast  a  balance,  without 
making  a  mistake. 

In  the  belles-lettres  department  he  was  pro 
ficient.  He  read  widely,  became  familiar  with  the 
masterpieces,  ancient  and  modern,  but  his  taste 
was  not  correct,  nor  his  judgment  sound. 

All  the  poets  he  had  enjoyed;  and  after  having 
examined  the  treasures  of  each  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  own  that  he  thought  Ossian  "  the 
greatest  poet  that  had  ever  existed." 

He  had  no  liking  for  novels,  though  he  paid 
Cervantes  the  tribute  of  reading  Don  Quixote 
twice. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  novel-writing 

19 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

in  Jefferson's  youth  was  an  infant  industry  in  com 
parison  with  what  it  soon  became.  He  believed 
that  the  writings  of  Sterne  formed  the  best  course 
of  morality  ever  written;  and  he  expressed  unmiti 
gated  contempt  for  Plato  as  a  mere  visionary. 

Far  in  advance  of  the  youth  of  his  day  in  aca 
demic  knowledge,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  no  sooner  left 
college  than  he  took  up  the  study  of  law.  Therein 
his  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  was  George 
Wythe,  a  most  excellent  man  and  able  lawyer.  As 
Mr.  Wythe  lived  in  Williamsburg,  young  Jefferson 
was  there  much  of  his  time  during  the  five  years 
that  he  spent  in  preparing  for  the  bar. 

Possessed  of  a  competence,  and  devoted  to  his 
books,  the  young  man  was  in  no  hurry  to  throw 
himself  into  active  practise.  Just  as  he  had  stud 
ied  systematically  at  college,  he  continued  to  do 
at  home.  He  rose  as  soon  as  he  could  see  the 
hands  of  the  clock,  and  passed  the  day  with  his 
books,  varied  with  exercise  on  foot  or  horseback. 
The  evening  he  filled  with  music — he  and  his 
favorite  sister,  Jane,  singing  the  ballads  and  the 
psalms  of  that  olden  time  to  the  accompaniment 
of  his  violin. 

Thomas  Jefferson  became  of  age  in  1764,  while 
he  was  still  studying  law,  and  he  celebrated  that 
event  by  setting  out  an  avenue  of  trees.  He  was 
now  fully  developed  physically,  and  was  a  fine 
specimen  of  manhood.  He  was  six  feet  two  and  a 

20 


YOUTH   AND  EDUCATION 

half  inches  in  height;  was  active  and  strong;  was 
healthy  and  good  to  look  upon,  but  not  handsome. 
His  figure  was  spare,  if  not  slender,  and  was  not 
well  built,  not  compact,  like  his  father's,  but  more 
on  the  angular,  shackling  order,  with  large  wrists, 
large  hands  and  feet — a  raw-boned  man;  but, 
nevertheless,  he  was  so  straight  and  vigorous,  so 
able  to  bear  himself  with  credit  in  ballroom  or 
hunting  field,  was  so  fine  a  horseman,  so  much  an 
adept  in  all  manly  sports  and  games,  that  his  lack 
of  perfect  symmetry  was  rarely  noticed.  His  hair, 
abundant  and  silken,  was  light  auburn,  or  sandy; 
his  eyes  were  gray,  flecked  with  hazel,  and  were 
clear,  mild,  expressive,  full,  and  deep  set;  his  teeth 
were  perfect;  his  chin  and  mouth  were  good  fea 
tures  without  being  particularly  fine;  his  nose  was 
somewhat  too  small  for  the  angular  breadth  of 
face,  and  his  neck  was  so  long  as  to  give  his  head 
the  appearance  of  being  habitually  thrust  forward; 
his  complexion  was  ruddy,  of  the  peculiar  redness 
caused  by  the  showing  of  minute  veins  beneath  a 
thin  skin  which  peeled  off  under  the  slightest  ex 
posure  to  sun  or  wind. 

His  manners  were  simple  and  cordial,  his  voice 
pleasing  to  the  ear,  and  his  temper  gentle,  con 
ciliatory,  forgiving.  No  rancor  or  vindictiveness 
marred  his  youth,  and  there  is  no  recorded  instance 
of  his  having  been  subjected  to  a  personal  insult, 
or  drawn  into  a  personal  brawl.  He  was  a  temper- 

21 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

ate,  truthful,  honest,  warm-hearted  boy;  one  whom 
the  young  people  liked  because  of  his  genial,  social, 
sport-loving  nature;  one  whom  the  elders  liked 
because  he  gave  rein  to  no  vices,  was  a  pattern  of 
good  behavior,  and  was  deferential  to  his  seniors. 
He  did  not  use  tobacco,  did  not  gamble,  was  not 
profane,  and  did  not  look  upon  white  wine  or  red. 

In  after  life  he  drank  but  one  glass  of  water 
per  day,  and  indulged  in  several  glasses  of  wine. 
So  also  his  faithful  account-books  show  that  when 
he  had  grown  older  he  won  nearly  as  much  as  two 
dollars  at  one  sitting  at  a  game  of  cards,  and  four 
teen  cents  at  backgammon.  At  lotto  he  met  with 
disaster,  for  he  records  that  he  lost  nearly  five  dol 
lars  at  one  time.  In  other  words,  Jefferson  played 
games  of  chance  for  trifling  stakes  just  as  Wash 
ington  and  others,  including  the  state  clergy,  did 
in  those  days.  It  was  social  pastime  with  them, 
and,  with  them,  went  no  further. 

It  may  have  been  after  his  Waterloo  at  lotto 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  penned  this  truism :  "  Gambling 
corrupts  all  dispositions,  and  creates  a  habit  of 
hostility  against  all  mankind." 

Later  in  life  his  manner  to  strangers  seemed 
cold  and  reserved;  and  he  developed  a  capacity  for 
hatred  which  would  have  satisfied  Dr.  Sam  John 
son.  This  was,  however,  after  he  had  been  through 
the  fiery  ordeal  of  politics,  had  been  beat  upon  by 
as  fierce  a  storm  of  abuse  and  slander  as  ever 

22 


YOUTH   AND  EDUCATION 

assailed  a  statesman  so  essentially  pure,  so  abso 
lutely  patriotic,  so  consistently  unselfish  and  be 
nevolent. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  traits  in  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  character  was  his  capacity  for  friendship- 
deep,  lasting,  tender,  splendidly  loyal  friendship. 
Few  were  the  individuals  he  ever  hated;  and  he 
loved  a  great  many,  some  of  them  being  persons 
whom  others  found  it  hard  to  love — John  Adams, 
for  example.  We  will  find  these  friendships  mul 
tiplying  around  him  at  every  stage  of  his  career, 
we  will  see  them  embrace  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men.  We  will  see  his  sympathetic  affection 
reaching  out  to  warriors  like  Paul  Jones  and 
George  Rogers  Clarke,  to  savants  like  Buffon  and 
Cabanis.  His  circle  of  good-fellowship  embraced 
such  opposite  characters  as  the  Abbd  Corea  and 
Dr.  Bush,  the  Marquis  of  Chastelleux  and  Samuel 
Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Tobias  Lear.  He 
was  endeared  to  English  Priestley  and  to  French 
La  Fayette,  to  Mazzie  the  Italian  and  Kosciusko  the 
Pole,  to  James  Madison,  the  scholarly  statesman, 
and  to  Thomas  Paine,  the  unpolished  patriot.  And 
few  men  have  even  shown  more  stanchness,  more 
downright  pluck  in  standing  by  his  friends,  even 
when  he  incurred  abuse  and  losses  by  doing  so. 

But  the  most  thoroughly  congenial  tie  he  ever 
formed  in  the  way  of  manly  friendship  was  with 
Dabney  Carr,  who  loved  books  as  Jefferson  loved 

23 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

them,  whose  soul  was  filled  with  the  same  enthu 
siasm  for  things  beautiful  and  true  and  great; 
whose  every  pulse-beat  was  that  of  a  man  warmly 
loving,  aspiring  loftily,  eager  for  thorough  equip 
ment,  that  he  might  bear  himself  gallantly  in  the 
great  battle  of  life. 

This  young  man  had  all  the  tastes  which  Jeffer 
son  had,  many  of  the  gifts  which  made  Jefferson 
great,  and  had  the  other  great  gifts  which  Jeffer 
son  lacked.  Notably  Dabney  Carr  was  bold  in 
action,  fearless  in  debate,  an  orator  and  lawyer 
whose  name  was  mentioned  with  praise  by  those 
who  coupled  it  with  that  of  Patrick  Henry.  Very 
beautiful  was  the  love  and  trust  which  bound  these 
two  ambitious  young  men  together.  In  their  walks 
and  exercises,  their  talks  and  their  meditations, 
they  went  in  company,  the  one  with  the  other. 

On  the  wooded  mountainside  they  had  made  a 
rough  seat  under  a  noble  tree;  and  to  this  retired 
spot  they  would  bring  their  books  for  study  and 
for  thought.  Here  they  would  give  loose  rein  to 
imagination  as  they  discussed  their  plans  for  the 
present  and  their  hopes  for  the  future;  and  here 
they  promised  each  other  that  when  life's  hurly- 
burly  was  done,  and  there  was  no  longer  daylight 
in  which  any  man  could  hope  and  plan  and  work, 
they  should  sleep  the  long  sleep  under  the  shadow 
of  the  great  tree. 

A  day  dream  of  politically  minded  young  men. 
24 


YOUTH   AND   EDUCATION 

The  mountain  was  Monticello — a  part  of  the 
Peter  Jefferson  estate;  and  as  the  young  men  stood 
upon  its  summit  and  gazed  upon  one  of  the  fair 
est  landscapes  nature's  many-colored  brush  ever 
painted,  Jefferson's  fancy  kindled;  and  he  dreamed 
of  a  lovely  home  that  he  should  make  for  himself 
up  there  in  the  pure  air,  amid  the  clouds  and  the 
majestic  trees. 

Some  day  he  would  build  it;  some  day  he  would 
lead  to  its  portals  the  fairest  of  brides;  some  day 
he  would  stand  upon  its  classic  portico,  surrounded 
by  those  who  loved  him  best,  and  look  forth  tran 
quilly  upon  the  beauties  of  the  world — a  world  in 
which  he  should  have  done  his  own  part  before  he 
came  back  here  for  rest  in  the  evening  of  life. 

And  when  all  was  done,  he  would  sleep  beneath 
the  giant  oak,  he  and  Dabney  Carr,  where  they  had 
communed  together  in  the  cloudless  days  when 
they  were  boys. 

To  dream  is  one  thing — a  comparatively  easy 
thing;  to  hold  firmly  the  ideal  is  quite  another;  and 
to  work  it  out,  is  yet  another.  Jefferson  dreamed, 
held  firmly  to  his  dream,  and  worked  it  out. 

On  the  summit  of  the  hill  was  built  the  home, 
planned  in  his  brain,  made  almost  by  his  hands — 
a  classic,  lovely,  imposing  home.  To  be  its  queen 
he  did  bring  as  his  bride  one  of  the  fairest,  sweet 
est,  truest  of  women;  children  blessed  the  union; 
and  amid  those  he  loved  best  he  did  look  down  on 

25 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

the  world  from  the  mountain  home  tranquilly,  as 
the  soldier  might  gaze  again  upon  a  battle-field 
in  which  he  had  been  a  standard-bearer.  And 
when  all  was  done,  and  the  feeble  hands  had 
dropped  the  greater  tasks,  his  faltering  feet 
brought  him  back  here  for  the  quiet  of  the  after 
noon.  And  when  it  came  to  be  nightfall,  and  the 
lights  were  out,  he  was  laid  to  his  rest  under  the 
big  tree  by  the  side  of  Dabney  Carr. 


26 


CHAPTEE    II 

BEGINNINGS   OF  THE   REVOLUTION 

IT  serves  no  useful  purpose  now,  perhaps,  to 
enter  into  elaborate  discussion  of  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Yet  we  can 
not  appreciate  the  conduct  of  any  of  the  great 
actors  on  that  stage  unless  we  know  something 
about  the  play. 

In  the  recent  years  a  tendency  has  been  shown 
by  some  historians  to  justify  Great  Britain  and  to 
blame  the  colonies.  The  mother  country,  it  would 
seem,  was  governing  her  offspring  in  a  parentally 
considerate  manner,  when  certain  wicked  men,  for 
sinister  purposes,  sowed  seeds  of  discord,  culti 
vated  rebellion,  and  garnered  independence.  The 
Americans  were  the  aggressors.  They  started  a 
quarrel  without  just  cause,  and  they  kept  it  up  in 
spite  of  all  efforts  at  reconciliation.  Historians  of 
this  school  almost  convince  us  that  our  forefathers 
wantonly  dragged  British  soldiers  over  here  from 
the  pure  love  of  combat,  coerced  the  infamous  lit 
tle  despots  of  Germany  to  hire  Hessians  to  King- 
George,  and  bearded  that  well-intentioned  mon 
arch  for  no  reason  on  earth  save  that  they  did  not 
want  to  pay  their  British  debts. 

Reading  the  pages  of  Mr.  Sydney  George  Fisher 

27 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

and  some  others,  we  can  almost  fancy  that  the  war 
was  fought  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean,  and  that 
England  was  the  land  that  was  invaded,  and  swept 
by  fire  and  sword.  We  almost  begin  to  fear  that 
our  forefathers  were  the  ruthless  Anglo-Saxons 
who  whetted  the  red  man's  tomahawk,  lit  his 
torch,  fired  his  soul  with  the  passions  of  hell,  and 
sent  him  on  his  mission  of  murder. 

A  very  great  deal  of  forgetting  must  be  done 
before  the  true-hearted  American  of  to-day  can  be 
brought  to  pin  his  faith  to  histories  of  this  sort, 
and  to  assume  an  attitude  of  apology  for  the  Revo 
lutionary  War.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  Great 
Britain  so  loved  her  little  American  colonies  that 
she  made  war  upon  France  to  protect  them;  that 
she  incurred  heavy  expense  thereby,  and  that  she 
taxed  the  colonies  to  defray  the  cost  of  colonial 
defense.  Nor  will  it  do  to  say  that  the  odious  navi 
gation  acts  of  which  the  colonies  complained  were 
such  as  other  parent  countries  imposed  upon  their 
colonies,  and  that  the  American  Smugglers,  John 
Hancock  &  Co.,  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble. 

Broadly  stated,  the  historical  truth  is  that 
Great  Britain  had  long  been  at  death-grips  with 
France  for  leadership  among  the  nations,  for  world 
empire.  The  quarrel  and  the  contest  had  origi 
nated  ever  so  long  before.  Kace  hatred,  dynastic 
feuds,  clashing  ambitions,  religious  antagonisms, 
had  all  played  their  parts;  and  the  struggle  had 

28 


BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

gone  on,  with  interval  of  peace,  for  centuries. 
Louis  XIV  inherited  the  quarrel,  and  spent  a  vast 
deal  of  his  time,  strength,  and  resources  fighting  it 
out,  losing  heavily  before  he  quit.  Louis  XV  was 
born  into  the  rivalry,  and  before  he  died  England 
had  won  the  race.  France  had  been  practically 
driven  out  of  India,  out  of  America,  and  out  of 
competition  with  Great  Britain. 

The  battle-royal  between  these  two  nations  had 
been  waged  from  one  generation  to  another,  on  land 
and  sea,  secretly  and  openly,  honorably  and  dis 
honorably,  by  warriors  and  by  statesmen,  by  diplo 
mats  and  by  priests,  by  stratagem  and  by  force,  by 
money  and  by  arms.  When  British  troops  fought 
the  French  in  America  their  motive  was  precisely 
what  it  was  when  they  fought  the  French  in  Hin 
dustan.  Love  for  the  poor  American  had  no  more 
to  do  with  it  in  the  one  case  than  love  for  the  poor 
Hindu  had  to  do  with  it  in  the  other.  When  Wolfe 
scaled  the  heights  of  Quebec  in  1757,  his  object 
was  exactly  that  which  Braddock  sought  in  1755, 
and  exactly  that  sought  and  won  by  Clive  in  Hin 
dustan  when,  in  1757,  he  fought  at  Plassey.  The 
French  were  combated  and  routed  at  Minden,  in 
Germany,  for  the  same  reason  that  brought  disas 
ter  upon  them  in  the  ancient  East  and  in  the  wil 
derness  of  the  West.  So  selfish  was  the  purpose 
of  the  mother  country  in  all  this  that  when  four 
thousand  heroic  New  England  militia  captured 

29 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

from  the  French  the  fortress  of  Louisburg,  upon 
which  five  million  dollars  had  been  spent,  and 
which  was  considered  the  Gibraltar  of  the  New 
World,  Great  Britain  handed  it  back  to  France  in 
exchange  for  a  city  in  Hindustan,  without  asking 
the  colonies  the  slightest  odds  about  it. 

France  should  not  have  the  colonies;  to  that 
extent  Great  Britain  loved  them,  but  not  much 
further.  For  a  hundred  years  at  a  time,  the 
mother  country  had  left  the  colonies  to  maintain 
themselves,  unaided  against  both  French  and  In 
dians.  When  English  armies  did  come,  it  was 
upon  the  colonies  that  the  losses  and  horrors  of 
war  most  heavily  fell.  Who  but  the  Virginians 
held  the  border  after  Braddock's  defeat,  beating 
back  the  infuriated  savages,  enduring  hardships 
which  so  wrung  the  heart  of  Washington  that  he 
wished  he  might  offer  his  own  life  as  a  sacrifice  to 
shield  his  countrymen? 

No;  England  had  rolled  up  no  debt  of  gratitude 
against  her  colonies.  She  had  not  brought  the 
hardy  pioneers  over  here.  As  a  rule,  she  had 
driven  them  here.  They  had  come  as  fugitives  fly 
ing  to  the  woods  to  escape  her  hard  yoke.  She  had 
not  maintained  them  here.  As  a  rule,  they  had  got 
nothing  from  the  crown,  nothing  from  Parliament 
save  the  privilege  of  battling  as  best  they  might 
against  the  terrors  of  the  wilderness  and  the  red 
man  who  dwelt  within  it.  Not  until  the  colonies 

30 


BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

had  begun  to  grow  strong,  not  until  American 
trade  began  to  be  a  source  of  British  profit,  did  the 
mother  country's  government  begin  to  develop  pa 
rental  interest  in  the  abandoned  child. 

As  to  the  navigation  laws,  it  is  clear  that  they 
were  designed  to  drain  every  surplus  American 
dollar  into  the  English  purse.  Doubtless  other 
nations  were  plundering  their  colonies  in  the  same 
manner,  but  it  was  cruel  robbery  nevertheless. 

Tobacco  raised  in  the  South  could  be  sold  no 
where  save  in  England,  and  on  its  way  to  market 
was  victimized  by  a  series  of  pilferings  which 
closely  resemble  the  commercial  rascalities  which 
a  bale  of  cotton  now  suffers  on  its  journey  from 
field  to  factory. 

In  the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  the  producer 
had  no  redress;  and  by  the  time  all  the  vultures 
had  had  their  morsels  the  bones  carried  little  flesh. 

The  protective  system  had  Great  Britain  by  the 
throat  in  those  days,  and  while  it  did  not  commit 
the  colossal  crimes  against  reason,  common  sense, 
and  common  honesty  which  the  same  monstrous 
system  now  commits  daily  in  our  Republic,  it  was 
sufficiently  tyrannical  and  unjust  to  become  a 
source  of  universal  discontent. 

In  order  that  the  manufacturer  of  hats  in  Eng 
land  might  be  "  protected  "  from  competition,  the 
skin  of  the  beaver  which  was  trapped  in  America 
must  be  sent  to  England  to  be  made  into  a  hat. 

31 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Colonial  wool  must  go  to  England  before  it  could 
be  made  into  cloth.  In  law,  it  would  have  been  an 
act  of  piracy  to  print  an  English  Bible  in  the 
colonies. 

To  "  protect "  Great  Britain's  infant  industry 
of  cutlery,  the  Pennsylvanian  who  dug  and  smelted 
iron  ore  was  not  allowed  to  turn  it  into  scythes  or 
knife-blades.  Not  only  must  all  American  produce 
be  sent  to  English  markets,  but  the  return  cargo 
must  be  bought  of  British  dealers  in  British  ports. 
Literally,  the  colonist  was  robbed  going  and  com 
ing.  It  was  hardly  considered  a  joke  when  a  sar 
castic  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  proposed 
that  the  colonies  should  be  compelled  to  send  their 
horses  to  England  to  be  shod. 

William  Pitt  declared  that  the  colonists  could 
not  legally  make  a  horseshoe  nail.  Carolinians 
were  even  denied  the  right  to  run  turpentine 
and  tar. 

In  our  day  the  system  works  just  as  it  used  to 
do,  the  main  difference  being  that  Americans  rob 
Americans;  and  that  the  venue  of  the  crime  is  here 
instead  of  there. 

Finally,  the  reader  may  be  reminded  of  the  fact 
that,  after  the  war  of  the  American  Revolution, 
Great  Britain  changed  her  entire  colonial  policy. 
She  no  longer  asserted  the  right  of  her  Parliament 
to  tax  her  distant  colonies;  she  conceded  to  them 
the  principle  of  local  self-government. 

32 


BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

These  sweeping  changes  were  a  confession  that 
in  her  dispute  with  her  American  colonies  she  had 
been  wrong;  that  her  position  was  untenable,  and 
that  she  did  not  dare  to  leave  her  colonial  system 
in  such  shape  that  the  same  issue  might  be  made 
again. 

During  those  years  when  Thomas  Jefferson  was 
so  quietly  schooling  himself  at  Williamsburg  and 
Shadwell — years  in  which  Patrick  Henry  was  pick 
ing  up  his  first  cases  and  fees — occasionally  at 
tending  to  travelers  at  his  father-in-law's  tavern — 
it  is  curious  to  think  of  how  many  vital  changes 
\vere  taking  place  in  the  great  world  of  which  they 
knew  nothing.  They  kept  up  with  affairs  around 
them,  and  had  the  keenest  interest  in  local  life;  but 
of  the  outside  world  the  people  of  that  day  and 
generation  knew  little  and  cared  less. 

Nowadays,  the  poorest  workman  wants  to  know 
what  is  going  on  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa.  People 
who  hardly  know  where  next  month's  bread  is 
coming  from,  get  intensely  excited  over  a  crisis  in 
China  or  Venezuela;  follow  every  movement  in 
South  African  wars;  attend  in  spirit  the  opening  of 
a  Kiel  canal,  or  the  building  of  a  gigantic  dam  on 
the  Nile,  or  the  cutting  of  a  passage  through  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama. 

It  would  be  a  cheerless  day  in  thousands  of  cot 
tage  homes  if  the  newspapers  failed  to  chronicle 
the  latest  freak  of  the  Kaiser,  or  the  Sunday  maga- 
4  33 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

ziue  supplements  failed  to  print  one  more  of  his 
million  and  odd  photographs. 

"  The  necessaries  of  life "  is  a  phrase  whose 
meaning  we  have  revolutionized,  and  our  coffee  and 
our  bread  and  our  tobacco  and  our  literature  would 
leave  us  short  on  actual  necessaries  if  we  could 
not  mingle  with  them  the  most  recent  doings  on 
the  Riviera,  on  the  stock  exchange,  in  the  parlia 
ments  of  the  nations,  and  in  the  various  fields  of 
colonization  conquest  where  the  white  man's  theory 
of  benevolent  assimilation  gets  turned  into  the  col 
ored  brother's  burden  of  foreign  rule,  taxation,  and 
extermination. 

If  the  King  of  England  catches  a  new  cough  or 
catarrh,  we  must  know  it;  if  the  Pope's  health  or 
appetite  varies  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  normal, 
we  must  know  it;  if  Tolstoi,  Ibsen,  or  Kipling  has 
a  new  word  to  say,  we  must  hear  it;  if  the  Emperor 
William  has  another  grand-stand  play  to  make,  we 
must  see  it.  And,  by  all  means,  we  must  be  kept 
supplied  with  the  freshest  scandals  in  high  life,  en 
riched  by  piquant  details,  and  illustrated  by  pic 
tures  which  lighten  the  task  of  imagination. 

Very  different  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  old 
colonial  times. 

Buried  in  his  books  and  in  the  petty  happenings 
of  his  neighborhood,  young  Jefferson  saw  nothing 
of  the  great  events  that  were  passing  on  the  broad 
stage  of  the  world.  Unfelt  by  him  were  the  strug- 

34 


BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

gle  of  Frederick  the  Great  to  turn  the  recent  mar- 
quisate  of  Brandenburg  into  a  veritable  kingdom 
of  the  first  class,  as  were  the  despairing  efforts  of 
Corsica  to  maintain  her  independence.  While  he 
fiddled  with  versatile  Fauquier,  empires  changed 
hands,  remote  Homes  burned,  and  he  never  knew  it. 
He  rosined  the  bow  and  patted  the  foot  happily 
unconscious  of  the  progress  of  the  English  and 
the  French  in  pulling  down  the  native  empire  in 
India. 

Nor  could  Thomas  Jefferson  have  known  that  in 
the  same  year  that  he  became  of  age  a  popular 
movement  had  begun  in  the  French  province  of 
Louisiana — a  movement  whose  purpose  was  to 
establish  an  independent  republic. 

In  that  year  (1764)  a  letter  came  to  New  Orleans 
from  Louis  XV  of  France,  informing  the  Louisiana 
colonists  that  he  had  ceded  them  and  their  coun 
try  to  Spain.  This  cession  aroused  indignation 
throughout  Louisiana  among  the  French,  the  Ger 
man  settlers,  and  the  Acadians  who  came  to  this 
far  country  after  having  been  cruelly  driven  out  of 
their  Nova  Scotia  homes  by  the  British. 

Led  by  Lafreniere,  who  was  the  royal  attorney 
and  the  head  of  the  provincial  council,  the  malcon 
tents  began  to  hold  meetings  and  to  prepare  plans 
for  their  independent  republic.  In  1765  each  par 
ish  in  Louisiana  elected  delegates  to  a  convention, 
which  decided  to  send  a  representative  to  France 

35 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

to  protest  against  the  cession  to  Spain.  The  mis 
sion  accomplished  nothing;  the  king's  minister, 
Choiseul,  sent  word  that  the  colonists  must  submit. 

The  return  of  the  messenger  with  this  reply  to 
their  protest  roused  the  malcontents  to  decisive 
action.  On  the  night  of  October  28, 1768,  they  took 
forcible  possession  of  New  Orleans. 

The  council  expelled  the  Spanish  officer  who 
had  come  to  take  over  the  cession,  and  a  memorial 
was  issued  to  justify  the  conduct  of  the  insur 
gents.  Claiming  to  be  loyal  and  devoted  subjects 
of  the  King  of  France  they  protested  earnestly 
against  being  handed  over  to  Spain. 

This  noble  sentiment  was  uttered  by  Lafreniere 
in  his  address  to  the  council,  and  by  the  council  in 
its  memorial :  "  Without  liberty  there  are  f ew  vir 
tues.  Despotism  breeds  cowardice,  and  deepens 
the  abyss  of  vices."  But  Louisiana  was  not  yet 
prepared  for  a  republic.  When  Spain  sent  a  large 
fleet  and  military  force  to  put  down  the  revolt,  it 
collapsed  without  a  struggle.  Lafreniere  and  two 
of  his  comrades  were  sentenced  to  death  and  shot 
by  Spanish  soldiers.  Other  leaders  in  the  popular 
movement  were  punished  by  heavy  sentence  of  im 
prisonment.  Villare,  commander  of  the  German 
colonists,  was  so  cruelly  bayoneted  by  the  Spanish 
soldiers  who  took  him,  that  he  died  in  prison. 
Thus  the  first  struggle  made  in  America  against 
divine  right  and  absolutism  failed  utterly. 

36 


BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

Jefferson  was  deep  in  the  classics,  and  in  love- 
passages  with  Rebecca  Burwell,  when  Pontiac's 
great  war-belt  was  flying  through  the  northwest 
ern  woods,  rousing  the  tribes  to  battle  against  the 
ever-encroaching  whites.  Not  even  in  his  mind's 
eye  did  he  witness  the  dramatic  scene  when  Pon- 
tiac  and  his  chosen  band  stalked  into  Detroit  with 
their  sawed-off  guns  under  their  blankets  expect 
ing  to  surprise  and  capture  the  fort,  only  to  find 
that  the  whites  had  been  forewarned,  that  soldiers 
stood  in  line  with  muskets  ready,  and  the  steady 
beat  of  the  drum  told  the  wily  strategist  that  his 
game  was  lost. 

Out  of  this  trap  Pontiac  escapes,  and  his  next 
play  is  better. 

There  is  a  grand  game  of  ball  before  the  fort  at 
Mackinaw;  whites  are  invited  to  come  and  see; 
there  is  a  fine  spectacle  of  naked  Indians  playing  a 
championship  game  which  in  many  respects  resem 
bled  football,  only  the  ball  is  small  and  is  struck 
with  bats.  The  red  men  shout,  the  red  men  run 
and  struggle  after  the  ball,  the  white  men  look  on, 
become  interested,  get  more  or  less  excited.  The 
players  run  back  and  forth,  far  and  near;  the  ball 
flies  this  way  and  that.  It  is  a  splendid  game. 

Look!  High  over  the  heads  of  all  flies  the  ball, 
and  it  hits  the  ground  near  the  gate  of  the  fort. 
Red  men  give  cry,  and  they  chase  the  ball;  they 
run  toward  the  gate  of  the  fort,  they  snatch  toma- 

37 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

hawks  from  squaws  who  have  kept  them  concealed 
under  their  dress;  and  before  the  dazed  sentinels 
know  what  is  happening,  the  shout  of  the  ball 
player  has  changed  to  the  war-whoop  of  the  war 
rior,  and  the  hatchet  sinks  into  the  sentinel's  brain. 
The  game  of  ball  is  a  trick  of  war,  and  the  Eng 
lish  fort  is  its  prize. 


38 


CHAPTER    III 

STAMP   ACT  TIMES 

IN  the  year  1765  Great  Britain  was  feeling 
strong  and  proud.  In  every  quarter  of  the  globe 
her  arms  had  triumphed.  France  and  Spain  had 
been  humbled,  immense  territory  had  been  con 
quered,  she  was  undisputed  mistress  of  the  seas, 
the  Indian  outbreak  had  been  put  down,  Pontiac 
had  smoked  his  great  pipe  of  peace  and  gone  to  his 
hut  in  the  woods,  never  to  lead  war  band  again. 
Now  was  the  time  to  have  certain  issues  settled 
with  the  colonies.  They  had  not  pleased  the 
mother  country,  had  not  come  up  with  quotas  of 
money  assessed  against  them,  had  not  shown  the 
most  dutiful  spirit,  had,  in  fact,  given  offense  to 
many  insolent  English  officials,  from  whose  point 
of  view  a  colonial  was  an  inferior  who  had  few 
rights  they  were  bound  to  respect.  In  this  spirit 
was  conceived  the  Stamp  Act — a  measure  which 
had  no  precedent,  and  which  was  in  plain  viola 
tion  of  what  the  colonies  understood  to  be  the  law. 
As  will  be  shown  hereafter,  it  was  an  open  breach 
of  a  written  compact  which  had  long  been  in  ex 
istence  between  Virginia  and  the  mother  country. 

39 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

But  so  universal  was  the  feeling  in  America  that 
the  Stamp  Act  was  tyrannical,  that  the  movement 
against  it  was  almost  simultaneous,  as  well  as  vol 
untary  and  spontaneous. 

According  to  the  historian  Wheeler,  North 
Carolina,  eleven  days  before  the  adoption  of  the 
famous  resolution  in  the  Virginia  burgesses,  grew 
so  boisterous  in  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act  that 
Governor  Tryon  had  to  dissolve  the  Legislature. 
Speaker  John  Ashe  put  the  king's  lieutenant  on 
notice  that  any  attempt  to  enforce  the  odious  law 
would  be  "  resisted  to  blood  and  death." 

It  was  not  long  before  the  British  sloop-of-war, 
the  Diligence,  arrived  in  Cape  Fear  River,  bring 
ing  a  lot  of  the  stamped  paper  to  be  sold  in  the 
colony.  The  people  flew  to  arms,  and  led  by  Colo 
nels  Ashe  and  Waddell,  menaced  the  governor's 
palace,  compelled  him  to  surrender  the  distributor 
of  stamps,  Houston,  and  this  royal  officer,  being  led 
to  the  public  square,  was  forced  to  swear  that  he 
would  make  no  effort  to  use  the  stamps.  Having 
thus  nullified  an  illegal  attempt  at  legislation,  the 
insurgents  gave  three  cheers  and  dispersed. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  still  pursuing  his  law  studies 
at  Williamsburg  when  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur 
gesses  assembled  for  the  spring  session  of  1765. 

Day  after  day  the  members  came  and  went,  but 
while  the  Stamp  Act  was  in  the  thoughts  of  all,  no 
body  spoke  out  against  it.  Washington  was  there, 

40 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

but  he  made  no  sign.  The  Randolphs,  Pendleton, 
Wythe,  Bland,  they  were  there,  but  they  sounded 
no  bugle-note  of  revolt. 

Three  days  more  and  the  session  would  end — 
and  Virginia  would  not  have  been  heard  on  the 
issue  which  made  hearts  palpitate  and  pulses  leap 
from  Georgia  to  the  remotest  North. 

A  gaunt,  coarsely  dressed  countryman  handed 
up  a  series  of  resolutions  challenging  the  right  of 
the  British  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies  at  all. 

Here  was  revolution! 

It  was  one  thing  for  James  Otis  and  Samuel 
Adams  to  remonstrate  against  a  measure  which 
Great  Britain  had  merely  threatened;  one  thing 
for  the  Virginia  burgesses  in  1764  to  remonstrate 
against  anticipated  legislation;  it  was  altogether  a 
different  thing  to  rebel  against  the  measure  after 
it  had  been  passed,  to  defy  the  law  after  it  had  re 
ceived  the  royal  sanction. 

What  American  could  ever  forget  that  historic 
scene? 

There  are  the  resolutions  written  on  the  blank 
leaf  of  an  old  law-book.  They  create  a  sensation 
which  grows  into  a  storm  of  excitement  as  the  reso 
lutions  travel  to  committee  and  back  again. 

The  clownish  looking  demagogue  from  the  in 
terior  is  scowled  at,  abused,  threatened.  He  does 
not  swerve  an  inch.  When  debate  is  in  order,  he 
is  ready;  and  out  of  the  murk  of  obscurity  into  the 

41 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

full  light  of  history,  into  the  lasting  remembrance 
of  patriotism  and  heroism  for  all  time  to  come, 
Patrick  Henry  steps.  Awkward  at  first,  as  he  al 
ways  was,  faltering  in  the  beginning  as  he  ever  did, 
he  feels  his  way  to  the  road,  and  finds  it.  Then  he 
no  longer  falters,  then  his  manner  is  embarrassed 
no  more.  He  has  struck  the  road,  his  eye  sees 
down  it  far  ahead,  and  all  the  way  is  clear;  the 
orator  feels  his  power,  glories  in  it  as  the  war- 
horse  does  in  the  battle.  None  but  the  born  ora 
tor  knows  what  the  feeling  is,  can  realize  the  ec 
stasy  of  it,  the  self-forgetfulness  of  it.  Lifted  by 
his  own  growing  enthusiasm,  inspired  by  the  same 
mysterious  force  which  inspires  others,  he  rises, 
rises,  as  in  a  chariot  of  fire. 

The  deep-set  gray  eyes  under  the  shaggy  eye 
brows  gleam  and  flash;  the  stooped,  ungainly  fig 
ure  towers  straight,  imperial  in  strength  and 
grace;  the  voice  full,  rounded,  powerful,  perfect  in 
every  note,  high  or  low;  the  words  simple,  pure, 
massive,  English — the  best  language  on  earth  for 
human  thought  or  passion — the  golden  key  of  all 
true  orators  who  would  unlock  the  Holy  of  Holies 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  heart.  He  was  not  the  first 
man  to  give  speech  to  the  growing  independence  of 
thought  in  the  American  colonies.  Nor  did  he  ever 
claim  to  be;  though  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any 
utterance,  made  North  or  South,  in  the  court-room 
or  out  of  it,  which  went  further  in  its  assertion  of 

42 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

colonial  right  to  make  its  own  laws  than  did  his 
argument  in  the  Parsons  cause  in  1763. 

But  while  there  had  been  much  unofficial  talk 
about  colonial  rights  and  against  British  encroach 
ments,  no  responsible  person  acting  officially  had 
set  up  the  standard  of  revolt.  It  was  in  this  sense 
that  Patrick  Henry  was  the  first  of  all  American 
rebels  and  patriots.  It  was  in  this  sense  that  Vir 
ginia's  legislative  action  was  the  first  gun  of  the 
Revolutionary  War. 

And  with  Henry  there  was  no  drawing  back. 
His  was  not  the  nature  to  flare  up  into  a  hot 
speech,  which  he  would  proceed  to  qualify  and  re 
frigerate  the  moment  his  passion  had  passed — as 
James  Otis  did.  Whatever  Patrick  Henry  said  in 
the  tempest  of  his  oratory,  he  meant,  and  he  main 
tained.  Neither  in  public  nor  in  private  would  he 
take  it  back. 

"  Csesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  I  his  Cromwell, 
and  George  III " 

"Treason!"  shouts  Mr.  Speaker  Robinson, 
starting  up  from  his  chair,  official  vengeance  in 
his  eye. 

"Treason!  Treason!"  shout  the  loyal  Ran 
dolphs  and  all  the  Tory  squires,  outraged  and  in 
dignant  at  the  war-cry  of  the  backwoods  dema 
gogue. 

It  was  treason,  for  it  practically  threatened  the 
king's  life,  and  a  rebellion  against  a  law!  And  to 

43 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

be  guilty  of  treason  was  to  incur  swift  penalty  of 
death — death  in  most  horrible  form.  How  era- 
venly  an  ordinary  man  would  have  cowered  under 
Mr.  Speaker's  eye,  would  have  trembled  at  the 
furious  onslaught  of  the  all-powerful  Tory  land 
lords! 

Losing  neither  his  head  nor  his  heart,  neither 
his  courage  of  conviction  nor  his  prudence  of  con 
duct,  this  "  forest-born  Demosthenes  "  held  every 
friend  of  freedom  to  his  place,  and  every  Tory 
squire  at  bay,  by  the  dauntless  firmness  with  which 
he  answered  the  challenge:  "And  George  III  may 
profit  by  their  example!  " 

Challenged  by  royalists  in  a  similar  manner, 
while  declaiming  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  Boston,  James  Otis  struck  his  flag.  The  cry  of 
"  Treason!  Treason!  "  unnerved  him.  He  consented 
to  erase  the  words  of  defiant  patriotism,  and  they 
were  erased. 

From  Henry  we  shall  never  hear  a  word  of 
doubt  or  retraction.  Every  time  we  hear  his  voice 
it  will  ring  out  clear  and  loud,  a  trumpet-call 
to  battle — the  "Forward,  march!"  of  the  Revo 
lution. 

When  that  epoch-making  speech  is  done,  Vir 
ginia  has  spoken,  and  the  ball  of  revolution  has 
begun  to  roll.  Vain  is  the  expunging  of  one  of 
these  resolutions  when  the  debate  is  over  and  the 
champion  gone.  The  winged  words  are  flying  to 

44 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

the  uttermost  parts  of  the  land,  "  and  God  himself 
can  not  destroy  the  spoken  word." 

In  New  York  a  written  copy  of  the  resolutions 
will  be  handed  around  on  the  sly;  they  are  treason 
able,  and  treason  is  death. 

An  Irish  gentleman  of  Connecticut  will  have 
much  difficulty  in  getting  a  copy;  but  he  gets  it, 
and  carries  it  to  New  England,  where  it  is  pub 
lished  far  and  wide. 

On  the  8th  of  July  the  Boston  Gazette  will  de 
clare: 

"  The  people  of  Virginia  have  spoken  very  sen 
sibly,  and  the  frozen  politicians  of  a  more  North 
ern  government  say  they  have  spoken  treason." 

Royal  Governor  Bernard  wrote  home  to  Eng 
land,  the  date  of  his  letter  being  August  15,  1765: 
"  Two  or  three  months  ago  I  thought  that  this  peo 
ple  would  submit  to  the  Stamp  Act. 

"Murmurs  were  indeed  continually  heard;  but 
they  seemed  to  be  such  as  would  die  away.  But 
the  publishing  of  the  Virginia  resolves  proved  an 
alarm-bell  to  the  disaffected." 

And  General  Gage,  writing  from  New  York  in 
September,  17G5,  notifies  Secretary  Conway,  of  the 
British  Cabinet,  that  the  Virginia  resolutions  had 
given  "  the  signal  for  a  general  outcry  over  the 
continent." 

Edmund  Burke,  speaking  in  Parliament,  voiced 
precisely  the  same  opinion. 

45 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

The  author  of  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson 
states  that  these  resolutions  were  all  expunged. 
There  were  seven  of  the  resolutions,  five  were 
passed  and  only  one  was  repealed.  This  fifth 
resolution,  having  been  passed  by  a  majority  of  one 
or  two  votes,  was  easily  rescinded  when  the  un 
suspecting  Henry  had  gone  home. 

One  of  those  who  listened  entranced  to  the 
thrilling  eloquence  of  Henry  was  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  who  stood  in  the  door  of  the  lobby  while  the 
debate  was  going  on.  His  kinsman,  Peyton  Ran 
dolph,  royal  Attorney-General,  came  through  the 
door  exclaiming:  "By  God,  I  would  have  given 
five  hundred  guineas  for  a  single  vote! "  Another 
kinsman,  Colonel  Peter  Randolph,  came  to  the  house 
next  morning  and  succeeded  in  having  the  bold 
est  resolution  of  the  five  expunged  from  the  record. 

Jefferson  had  first  met  Henry  during  the  Christ 
mas  holidays  of  1759-?60,  when  they  were  both  vis 
iting  at  the  house  of  Colonel  Dandridge,  of  Han 
over.1  They  became  friends  at  once.  Each  loved 
to  mingle  with  the  young  people,  to  join  in  the 
games  and  sports  of  the  season,  and  each  played 
the  fiddle.2  According  to  Mr.  William  Eleroy  Cur- 

1  In  his  True  Thomas  Jefferson  Mr.  Curtis  states  that  Henry  was 
already  a  lawyer  at  the  time  of  this  first  meeting,  which  is  not  correct ; 
and  that  Henry's  neighbors  regarded  him  "as  an  incorrigible  scamp," 
which  is  likewise  untrue. 

2  Mr.  Curtis  in  the  True  Thomas  Jefferson  states  that  Jefferson  was 
on  his  way  to  college  that  Christmas.     Why  did  not  Mr.  Curtis  read 
the  letter  of  Jefferson  to  his  guardian,  written  sixteen  days  after  Christ 
mas,  asking  permission  to  go  to  college  ? 

46 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

tis,  the  tradition  in  Virginia  is  that  these  two  were 
the  very  worst  fiddlers  in  the  colony,  and  that 
Jefferson  was  even  more  intolerable  than  Henry. 

After  these  Christmas  frolics,  Jefferson  went  on 
his  way  to  college,  and  about  three  months  after 
ward  received  a  visit  from  his  friend  who  had  come 
up  to  Williamsburg  to  apply  for  admission  to  the 
bar. 

Patrick  had  wrestled  for  six  weeks  with  a  sci 
ence  which  was  to  claim  five  years  from  Jefferson. 
After  a  fashion,  Patrick  gained  his  license;  and 
some  three  years  later  had  astounded  the  locality 
in  which  he  lived  by  his  sudden  exhibition  of  su 
preme  oratorical  powers  in  the  celebrated  Par 
sons  case.  With  neither  law  nor  equity  on  his 
side,  he  won  a  famous  victory — as  so  often  hap 
pens  in  the  vale  of  tears  where  special  Providence 
does  not  appear  to  conduct  lawsuits.1 

His  business  increasing  as  his  fame  widened, 
Mr.  Henry  began  to  have  cases  in  the  General 
Court,  whose  sessions  were  held  in  Williamsburg; 
and  whenever  he  came  up  to  the  capitol  he  would 
visit  and  sometimes  room  with  his  friend  Jefferson.2 

1  Mr.  Curtis,  in  that  True  Thomas  Jefferson,  which  literally  swarms 
with  errors,  states  that  this  Parsons  case  was  Henry's  first  case,  whereas 
his  account-books  show  that  he  had  been  doing  a  steady  business,  get 
ting  many  cases  for  two  or  three  years  before  that. 

•Mr.  Curtis  in  his  True  Thomas  Jefferson  states  that  Henry  fre 
quently  shared  Jefferson's  bed  for  lack  of  money  to  pay  a  hotel  bill. 
How  does  Mr.  Curtis  come  to  know  that  ?  What  is  his  authority  ? 
Patrick  was  in  full  practise  at  the  bar  and  his  books  show  that  his  »*»- 
come  was  greater  than  Jefferson's. 

47 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Then  came  Henry's  election  to  the  House  of 
Burgesses;  and  it  is  said  that  it  was  from  Jef 
ferson's  room  he  went  forth  to  make  his  speech 
against  the  Stamp  Act. 

Mr.  William  Eleroy  Curtis,  in  his  True  Thomas 
Jefferson  (which  might  be  truer),  makes  the  state 
ment  that  Henry's  famous  resolutions  were  writ 
ten  on  the  fly-leaf  of  Jefferson's  law-book,  Coke 
upon  Lyttleton. 

This  is  important  enough  to  be  interesting,  if 
true.  But  is  it  true?  How  does  Mr.  William  El 
eroy  Curtis  know? 

Dr.  Henry  S.  Randall's  voluminous  Life  of  Jef 
ferson  was  prepared  after  the  fullest  consultation 
with  the  statesman's  relatives  and  friends.  Dr. 
Randall  had  access  to  all  the  papers,  yet  Dr.  Ran 
dall  makes  no  such  statement.  Jefferson's  own 
memoir  fails  to  mention  it,  and  Henry's  own  writ 
ten  statement,  filed  away  with  his  will,  does  not 
mention  it.  Henry  declared  in  that  document 
that  he  wrote  the  resolutions  alone  and  un 
aided. 

Neither  does  Professor  Tucker,  Mr.  Schouler, 
Mr.  Forman,  or  any  other  biographer  of  Jefferson 
or  of  Henry,  mention  the  alleged  fact.  Mr.  Par- 
ton,  in  his  Life,  says  that  Henry  wrote  the  resolu 
tions  "  on  the  blank  leaf  of  an  old  Coke  upon  Lyt 
tleton — perhaps  Jefferson's  own  copy." 

Can  it  be  possible  that  the  author  of  the  True 

48 


STAMP  ACT   TIMES 

Thomas  Jefferson  took  as  a  fact  what  Parton  ven 
tured  as  a  surmise? 


We  have  seen  that  George  Wythe  thought  that 
Henry  was  going  too  fast  and  too  far;  we  have 
seen  that  Jefferson's  uncles  were  leaders  on  the 
king's  side.  Yet,  with  rare  independence  of  mind 
and  courage  of  conviction,  the  young  man  threw  off 
the  influence  of  his  mentor,  Wythe,  and  braved  the 
displeasure  of  his  aristocratic  kinsmen,  the  Ran 
dolphs.  From  the  very  first,  he  stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  Mr.  Henry. 

In  after  life  these  two  Virginians  became  ene 
mies,  personal  and  political;  and  they  said  many 
hard  things  of  each  other. 

Fortunately  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  tongue,  and 
not  the  pen,  was  Mr.  Henry's  favorite  weapon;  con 
sequently  the  criticisms  of  his  former  friend  have 
perished.  Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Henry,  the  favor 
ite  weapon  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  pen,  and,  out 
living  his  foe,  he  had  the  conclusion  on  him.  Partly 
to  Jefferson  is  due  the  almost  universal  impression 
that  Patrick  Henry  was  illiterate,  a  lawyer  who 
knew  no  law,  a  sloven  who  would  not  keep  ac 
counts  or  read  writing  if  he  could  avoid  it,  a  patriot 
whose  rise  to  fame  was  due  solely  to  his  wonderful 
gift  of  oratory.  Compared  with  a  finished  scholar, 
such  as  Jefferson  or  Madison,  Patrick  Henry  was 
5  49 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

illiterate;  compared  with  George  Washington  he 
was  not.  His  latest  biographers  make  it  clear  that 
he  had  been  well  grounded  in  the  elements  of  an 
English  education,  that  he  had  made  considerable 
progress  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  was  fairly  famil 
iar  with  the  prominent  facts  of  ancient  and  mod 
ern  history.  He  did  keep  books  of  account,  and 
these  books  prove  that  he  enjoyed  a  good  general 
practise  for  two  or  three  years  prior  to  the  Par 
sons  case. 

As  the  years  passed  on,  he  numbered  among  his 
clients  some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  wealthy 
people  in  Virginia,  appeared  regularly  in  the  high 
est  court,  made  a  snug  fortune  at  the  bar  and  kept 
it — convincing  proof  that  he  was  something  more 
than  an  empty  declaimer. 

It  is  true  that  he  usually  wore  very  plain 
clothes,  and  abused  his  mother-tongue  in  common 
conversation  as  most  of  us  abuse  it;  true  also  that 
in  his  younger  days  he  was  idle,  loved  better  to 
hunt  and  fish  than  to  study  his  books  or  mind  his 
store;  true,  likewise,  that  he  failed  as  a  farmer  and 
as  a  merchant  before  he  tried  his  hand  at  law;  but 
when  success  of  the  higher  sort  came  to  him,  as  it 
did  in  the  Parsons  case,  it  gradually  changed  his 
habits.1  He  was  compelled  to  read,  compelled  to 
study,  compelled  to  labor  in  the  preparation  for 

1  One  of  the  parsons  against  whom  Patrick  Henry  thundered  was  the 
Rev.  James  Maur7 — probably  the  same  Maury  who  taught  Jefferson. 

50 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

great  trials  of  strength  in  the  court-house,  on  the 
hustings,  and  in  the  legislative  halls. 

His  debates  with  Edmund  Randolph,  James 
Madison,  and  Richard  Henry  Lee,  absolutely  con 
vince  the  impartial  mind  that  Patrick  Henry  was 
as  conversant  with  the  great  principles  of  law  and 
government  as  any  man  of  his  time. 

It  was  in  1767  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  ad 
mitted  to  the  bar.1  During  the  five  years  engaged 
in  these  studies,  he  suffered  a  domestic  loss  which 
grieved  him  deeply;  his  favorite  sister,  Jane,  died 
in  the  autumn  of  1765.  Previous  to  this  another 
sister,  Mary,  had  married  Thomas  Boiling;  in  July, 
1765,  his  sister  Martha  married  his  friend  Dabney 
Carr;  and  these  members  of  the  family  had  gone 
away  to  their  new  homes. 

In  May,  1766,  he  set  out  in  a  one-horse  chaise  to 
travel  northward.  Bad  weather,  an  unruly  horse, 
and  swollen  watercourses,  filled  the  journey  with 
adventure  and  hairbreadth  escapes,  but  he  finally 
reached  Annapolis,  where  he  found  the  people  jubi 
lating  over  England's  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act; 
went  on  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  vaccinated 
for  the  smallpox;  and  from  thence  he  proceeded  to 
New  York. 

On  his  route  he  had  visited  friends  and  college- 

1  He  had  already  been  put  in  commission  as  one  of  the  Justices  of  Al- 
bemarle  County ;  and  had  illustrated  his  love  of  work  of  public  useful 
ness  by  raising  funds,  by  subscription,  to  clear  the  Riranna  of  obstruc 
tions  so  that  produce  could  make  its  way  to  market  by  water. 

51 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

mates  at  their  homes,  had  made  many  new  ac 
quaintances,  had  got  a  better  idea  of  American 
city  life  than  he  possessed  before,  and  went  home 
benefited  by  the  journey. 

It  was  somewhere  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  conceived  the  idea  of  keeping  those  won 
derful  records,  those  memoranda  of  his  thoughts 
and  deeds,  which  excite  so  much  amusement  in 
some  people,  so  much  contempt  in  others.  Farm 
books,  garden  books,  pocket  account-books,  law- 
case  books,  weather  books,  special  expenses  books 
—kept  scrupulously  day  after  day,  year  after  year, 
in  the  neatest  methodical  manner,  and  in  writing 
beautifully  readable.  No  matter  how  smoothly  or 
j  turbulently  the  current  of  life  might  run;  no  mat 
ter  whether  politics  were  hot  or  cool,  elections 
favorable  or  unfavorable,  war-clouds  black  or  the 
heavens  calm,  Thomas  Jefferson  found  time  and  in 
clination  to  post  these  books  until  they  fairly  teem 
with  facts — facts  important,  trivial,  interesting, 
tedious,  comical,  tragical,  public  and  private — as 
queer  and  miscellaneous  a  mass  as  diarist  ever 
recorded. 

In  reading  the  Diary  of  Samuel  Pepys  we  come 
across  entries  which  preserve  the  date  on  which 
he  first  began  to  use  buckles  on  his  shoes,  also  the 
date  on  which  he  first  wore  his  long-tailed  coat.  We 
know  what  day  it  was  that  he  dined  with  his  friend 

52 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

Sandwich  on  a  turkey-pie;  as  well  as  what  morning 
he  breakfasted  at  Mrs.  Harper's  upon  a  goose. 
The  reader  can  likewise  identify  the  day  when  Mrs. 
Pepys  burned  her  hand  "  dressing  the  remains  of  a 
turkey  "  which  she  and  Samuel  ate  in  the  garret. 
We  also  know  what  evening  it  was  that  the  family 
went  "  to  bed  without  prayers — it  being  washing 
day  to-morrow."  We  locate  the  fact,  even  though 
we  miss  the  connection. 

In  Samuel  Pepys  the  entry  of  such  details  in  a 
diary  excites  no  wonder;  the  reader  smiles,  passes 
on  from  the  shoe-buckles,  the  goose,  and  the  long- 
tailed  coat  to  something  really  and  historically  im 
portant — the  reassembling  of  the  Rump  Parlia 
ment,  the  coming  of  General  Monk  to  London,  the 
going  to  Holland  to  get  King  Charles,  the  Restora 
tion,  and  the  digging  up  of  Cromwell's  body  in  order 
that  it  may  be  hung  in  chains  to  gratify  the  spite 
of  mean  creatures,  who  had  not  dared  to  face  him 
in  his  lifetime. 

But  in  the  voluminous  diaries  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
wye  come  upon  an  immense  deal  of  triviality,  and 
little  else. 

If  we  think  that  it  was  hardly  necessary  for 
Pepys  to  make  an  entry  of  the  fact  that  he  went 
home  to  change  his  shoes  and  stockings,  so  we 
think  Jefferson  need  not  have  made  a  note  of  the 
fact  that  the  myrtle  candles  were  out. 

53 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Pepys  records:  "I  this  day  left  off  my  great- 
skirt  suit,  and  put  on  my  white  suit  with  silver  lace 
coat." 

With  equal  gravity  Jefferson  jots  down  the  fact 
that  the  first  shad  appeared  in  the  market  on  the 
16th  of  March. 

Why  should  a  lawyer  in  full  practise,  a  scholar 
who  loves  books,  a  statesman  who  has  the  interest 
and  destinies  of  the  human  race  ever  in  his  mind, 
waste  ink  and  time  to  record  the  opinion  of  "  Mr. 
Eemsen  that  six  cords  of  hickory  would  last  a  fire 
place  the  winter"  ?  Why  make  a  formal  entry  of 
the  fact  that  "  T.  N.  Kandolph  has  had  nine  gallons 
of  whisky  for  his  harvest"  ?  Of  what  possible 
service  could  such  entries  be?  His  books  are  full 
of  such  items  as  these:  "  March  the  28th,  the  weep 
ing  willow  shows  the  green  leaf.  April  9th,  aspar 
agus  came  to  table.  April  10th,  apricots  blos 
som."  And  so  on,  page  after  page,  year  after 
year.  When  he  dropped  a  penny  in  the  box  at 
church  on  a  Sunday,  he  entered  the  donation  in 
his  book;  when  he  bought  a  pair  of  shoe-strings, 
or  a  paper  of  pins;  or  posted  a  letter;  or  got  a 
shave  at  a  barber  shop;  or  crossed  a  ferry;  or 
tipped  a  waiter,  it  all  had  to  go  down  in  the  book. 
He  elaborately  worked  out  the  cost  of  a  cup  of  tea 
and  of  the  sugar  which  sweetened  it;  and  then  wrote 
it  down  in  his  book — carefully.  Two  cents  was  the 
cost  price  which  he  figured  on  his  cup  of  tea — a 

54 


STAMP   ACT   TIMES 

fact  which  might  possibly  be  worth  knowing  if 
one  could  always  get  the  same  variety  of  tea,  of 
the  same  quality,  at  the  same  price,  have  it  meas 
ured  in  the  pot  for  the  same  quantity  of  water,  and 
sweetened  with  the  same  amount  of  the  same 
sugar  sold  at  the  same  rate. 

It  is  not  easy  to  prove  that  all  this  writing  in 
these  books  benefited  the  writer  or  posterity.  They 
simply  prove  the  bent  of  his  mind,  the  peculiar  turns 
taken  by  his  love  of  detail,  the  prankish  tricks  his 
love  of  mathematics  played  off  on  him.  They  ex 
pose  that  odd  characteristic,  that  lack  of  humor, 
that  prosaic  angularity  which  was  a  part  of  his 
complex  nature,  and  which  caused  his  best  friends 
to  indulge  in  good-humored  jokes  at  his  expense. 
To  his  enemies  these  eccentricities  were  a  joy  for 
ever,  a  source  of  endless  caricature,  exaggeration, 
and  ridicule. 

During  his  young  manhood,  when  his  lands 
were  fresh,  and  his  negroes  had  not  forgotten  the 
teachings  of  his  father,  he  no  doubt  cleared  two 
thousand  dollars  per  annum  on  his  farm,  as  he  said 
he  did.  But  after  he  had  been  severely  bitten  by 
that  most  expensive  mania,  house-building,  and 
after  he  had  let  the  virgin  soil  wash  away  from 
his  mountain  farm,  and  after  he  had  hired  an  over 
seer,  and  opened  his  free  hotel  on  the  top  of  that 
mountain,  the  account-books  did  him  no  good, 
neither  warning  him  of  the  breakers  ahead  nor 

55 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

teaching  him  how  to  avoid  them,  nor,  indeed,  dis 
closing  the  real  perils  of  the  situation. 

Mr.  Jefferson  actively  practised  law  from  the 
time  of  his  admission  (1767)  to  August,  1774,  at 
which  time  the  pressure  of  his  public  work  caused 
him  to  turn  his  unfinished  business  over  to  Ed 
mund  Randolph;  and  he  never  took  it  up  again. 
During  his  first  year  he  earned  about  fifteen  hun 
dred  dollars  at  the  bar.  For  the  next  four  years 
his  income  from  this  source  moderately  and  gradu 
ally  increased,  it  being  about  two  thousand  dollars 
in  the  fourth  year.  His  executor  states  that  the 
average  earnings  for  the  entire  period  of  his  pro 
fessional  career  was  three  thousand  dollars  per 
annum.  This  is  the  period  in  which  it  is  claimed 
that  he  cleared  two  thousand  dollars  yearly  on  his 
farm.  It  is  certain  that  he  increased  his  nineteen 
hundred  acres  to  five  thousand — a  fact  which  does 
not  necessarily  mean  that  he  ever  cleared  two  thou 
sand  a  year  farming. 

A  vocal  defect  hindered  Mr.  Jefferson  from  be 
coming  a  successful  advocate  or  public  speaker; 
for  if  he  spoke  much  above  a  conversational  tone 
his  voice  grew  husky  and  failed  him.  Yet  it  is  said 
that  he  could  argue  a  cause  effectively  in  the  court 
house — especially  to  the  bench.  In  the  higher 
courts  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  could  handle  his 
cases  ably,  for  he  was  profoundly  versed  in  the 
law,  was  thorough  in  preparation,  and  clear  in  the 

56 


STAMP   ACT    TIMES 

presentation  of  the  strong  points  on  his  side.  In 
the  making  of  a  brief,  or  a  written  argument,  he 
must  have  been  superb.  The  large  number  of 
cases  in  which  he  was  employed  in  the  general 
court  proves  that  his  professional  position  was 
high;  and  that  as  a  practical  lawyer  he  was  a  suc 
cess — though  a  moderate  one.  He  could  never 
have  rivaled  such  men  as  Edmund  Randolph,  Will 
iam  Wirt,  or  that  greatest  of  American  court 
house  lawyers,  William  Pinckney.  Nor  in  Patrick 
Henry's  province  could  he  have  rivaled  Henry  at 
the  bar;  but  had  he  continued  to  labor  in  his  pro 
fession,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  as  an  office- 
lawyer,  a  consulting  counsel,  an  associate  who 
could  be  relied  upon  to  exhaust  the  law  of  the  case, 
and  to  get  everything  on  paper,  Mr.  Jefferson 
would  have  been  always  in  demand. 

Mr.  Curtis,  in  his  True  Thomas  Jefferson,  feels 
constrained  to  account  for  the  large  amount  of 
money  made  by  this  mature  young  lawyer  of  twen 
ty-eight.  His  income  from  legal  practise  being, 
upon  an  average,  three  thousand  dollars  per  an 
num,  Mr.  Curtis  assumes  that  an  explanation  is  due 
to  the  reader.  And  the  explanation  which  he  gives 
(following  the  lead  of  Parton)  is  that  the  country 
was  in  a  bankrupt  condition,  and  that  Jefferson  fat 
tened  upon  the  carcass  of  a  dead  prosperity.  The 
theory  that  lawyers  thrive  most  when  financial  dis 
tress  is  greatest  is  an  old  one,  and,  like  several 

57 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

other  theories,  is  respected  solely  because  of  its 
age. 

The  most  casual  attention  to  facts  will  convince 
any  sensible  man  that  no  such  theory  can  be  sound. 
Lawyers  do  the  largest  amount  of  business,  and  get 
the  fattest  fees,  where  business  is  best.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  larger  fortunes  were  more 
rapidly  accumulated  than  now,  and  there  never 
was  a  time  when  the  lawyer  was  so  indispensible 
and  so  lavishly  paid.  Thomas  Jefferson  worked  for 
three  thousand  dollars  per  year,  Edmund  Randolph 
may  have  earned  five,  William  Pinckney,  perhaps, 
ten,  Daniel  Webster  an  average  of  ten,  in  his  best 
years. 

We  know  how  proud  he  was  to  get  the  rubber 
case  which  yielded  a  fee  of  fifteen  thousand  dol 
lars — the  largest  he  ever  earned.  William  Wirt 
certainly  did  not  earn  ten  thousand  a  year.  The 
country  was  poor,  and  fees  were  small.  The  life 
of  the  lawyer  was  summed  up  correctly  when 
Webster  declared  that  he  "  worked  hard,  lived  well, 
and  died  poor." 

The  country  is  now  rich,  and  fees  are  big;  and 
the  lawyers  whose  annual  incomes  reach  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  are  no  longer  rare.  Retainers  of 
ten  thousand  dollars,  fees  of  fifty  thousand  are  paid 
every  day  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Boston,  San  Fran 
cisco.  Now  and  then  some  attorney  who  pilots  a 
syndicate,  organizes  a  trust,  acts  as  pall-bearer  to 

58 


STAMP  ACT   TIMES 

a  dead  railroad,  manipulates  a  merger,  or  makes 
the  Supreme  Court  stultify  itself  on  the  question  of 
the  Income  Tax,  will  be  paid  a  fee  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  half  a  million  dollars,  or  even  a 
million  dollars. 

The  poorer  the  community  the  richer  the  lawyer 
— says  Mr.  Curtis  in  effect.  He  should  know  better. 
The  truth  is  just  the  reverse. 


59 


CHAPTER    IV 

IN  THE  LEGISLATURE 

GOVERNOR  FAUQUIER  died  in  1767,  and  with  the 
coming  of  his  successor,  Lord  Botetourt,  a  new  leg 
islature  was  chosen. 

Thomas  Jefferson  offered  himself  to  the  people 
of  his  home  county  of  Albemarle  as  a  candidate, 
and  was  duly  elected  a  burgess.  He  had  con 
formed  to  the  custom  in  such  cases,  had  personally 
canvassed  for  votes,  had  kept  lunch  and  punch 
ready  at  Shadwell  for  hungry  and  thirsty  electors, 
had  attended  at  the  polls,  and  bowed  his  thanks  to 
those  who  voted  for  him. 

The  Virginia  resolutions  of  1765  had  created 
such  a  threatening  demonstration  on  this  side  of 
the  water  that  Great  Britain  repealed  her  Stamp 
Act. 

A  change  of  ministry,  however,  had  brought 
about  a  change  of  policy,  and  the  Parliament  had 
imposed  the  unpopular  tax  again — this  time  in  the 
stealthier  guise  of  duties  upon  imported  articles, 
such  as  tea,  glass,  paper,  and  paint.  It  was  simply 
a  small  attempt  at  a  tariff,  a  very,  very  moderate 
charge  upon  goods  entered  at  the  Custom-House. 
Those  who  bought  the  goods  would  pay  the  tariff; 
those  who  did  not  like  the  tariff  need  not  buy  the 

60 


THE   LEGISLATURE 

goods.  The  tax  was  not  laid  upon  three  or  four 
thousand  articles  as  it  is  now,  but  only  upon  half 
a  dozen  or  so.  Unless  the  citizen  will  now  consent 
to  wear  the  wardrobe  of  Adam  and  live  on  air, 
earth,  and  water,  he  must  pay  the  tax.  Our  fore 
fathers  had  only  to  deny  themselves  paper,  tea, 
glass,  and  paint  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  England's 
law. 

When  the  burgesses  of  Virginia  met  Lord  Bote- 
tourt  at  Williamsburg,  June  11,  1769,  the  leaven  of 
1765  was  permeating  the  whole  loaf;  but  before 
there  could  be  a  clash  between  crown  officers  and 
popular  representatives  certain  preliminaries  had 
to  be  politely  arranged.  Lord  Botetourt  made  his 
royal  progress  in  his  state  coach  from  the  palace 
to  the  capitol,  where  he  entered  the  council-cham 
ber,  and  summoned  the  burgesses  to  his  presence. 
They  had  already  been  sworn  in  by  two  members 
of  the  council,  and  now  they  promenaded  to  the 
council-chamber,  where  Lord  Botetourt,  seated 
upon  his  vice-regal  throne,  received  them  inform 
ally,  and  instructed  them  to  return  to  their  hall 
and  elect  a  speaker.  This  they  did;  and  then  they 
notified  the  governor  of  the  fact,  who  in  turn  sent 
his  messenger  to  summon  them  once  more  to  his 
presence.  Led  by  their  speaker,  the  burgesses 
once  more  promenaded  all  to  the  vice-regal  room, 
where  the  speaker  was  formally  presented  to  the 
governor.  After  some  further  nonsense  of  the  ver- 

61 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

bal  sort,  Lord  Botetourt  delivered  his  address  to 
the  council  and  burgesses,  endeavoring  to  talk  as 
much  without  saying  anything  as — well,  as  an 
American  President  talking  against  the  trusts. 
This  precious  address  having  been  finished,  the 
speaker  begged  a  copy,  which  was  furnished,  and 
then  the  burgesses  promenaded  back  to  their  room. 
Mr.  Speaker  ascended  his  throne,  informed  the 
House  that  he  had  met  the  governor,  and  heard  an 
address  of  which  he  had  obtained  a  copy,  and  that 
he  would  now  read  said  address  to  the  House.  And 
he  did  it.  Then  the  House  appointed  a  committee 
to  draft  a  reply  to  the  "  speech  from  the  throne." 
To  assist  the  committee,  the  House  passed  some 
resolutions  which  were,  in  a  general  way,  to 
serve  as  a  guide  to  the  committee.  At  this  crisis 
Thomas  Jefferson  met  disaster.  Being  named 
as  one  of  the  three  to  draw  up  the  preliminary 
resolutions,  he  acquitted  himself  so  well  that  he 
was  asked  to  prepare  the  answer  to  the  address. 
He  did  so,  and  to  his  mortification  his  draft  was 
rejected. 

In  the  True  Thomas  Jefferson  William  Eleroy 
Curtis  says  that  "  his  fine  phrases  "  were  "  rejected 
by  the  practical  burgesses,  who  were  not  accus 
tomed  to  express  their  thought  in  such  elegant  dic 
tion."  In  other  words,  Mr.  Jefferson's  paper  was 
cast  aside  because  it  was  too  flowery,  verbose,  orna 
mental.  As  a  matter  of  sober  fact,  just  the  re- 

62 


IN   THE   LEGISLATURE 

verse  was  the  truth.     The  paper  was  rejected  be 
cause  it  was  too  short,  too  plain,  too  devoid  of  / 
courtly    flourish.     These    "  practical    burgesses "/ 
thought  that  Jefferson  had  stuck  too  closely  to  the! 
bare  text   of   his   resolutions,    had   not   amplified 
enough,  had  not  been  sufficiently  full  of  "  elegant 
diction." 

Another  man  was  named  to  elaborate  the  paper 
and  to  put  more  flourish  and  flower  in  it,  which, 
having  been  done,  the  practical  burgesses  voted  its 
adoption  with  great  gusto. 

The  courteous  preliminaries  having  been  ad 
justed  according  to  hoary  precedent,  the  burgesses 
settled  down  to  business.  They  at  once  passed 
sundry  resolutions,  the  most  important  of  which 
was  aimed  at  the  attempt  of  Great  Britain  to  tax 
the  colonies  which  were  unrepresented  in  her  Par 
liament. 

"  No  taxation  without  representation,"  declared 
the  burgesses.  Mr.  William  Eleroy  Curtis  states 
that,  after  the  passage  of  these  resolutions, 
Jefferson  and  Washington  and  others  spent  the 
night  in  speculating  upon  what  Botetourt  would 
do  about  it.  Few  people  will  believe  that  a  steady- 
nerved  soldier  like  Washington  sat  up  all  night 
speculating  as  to  what  Botetourt  would  do  with 
these  resolutions.  Especially  when  these  resolu 
tions  carried  Virginia  no  farther  than  she  had 
safely  gone  in  1765. 

63 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

It  was  next  day,  during  the  usual  hours  of  ses 
sion,  that  the  burgesses  were  summoned  to  the 
council-chamber,  where  the  governor,  briefly  ex 
pressing  his  disapproval  of  their  resolutions,  dis 
solved  them,  after  they  had  existed  organized  bur 
gesses  only  five  days.  During  that  afternoon  Will- 
iamsburg  may  have  witnessed  scenes  of  excite 
ment.  There  was  doubtless  much  caucusing  among 
the  members.  For  now  the  question  was,  What 
shall  we  burgesses  do?  The  governor  has  scolded 
us  as  though  we  were  naughty  children.  Shall 
we  reply?  He  has  told  us  to  go  home.  Shall 
we  go?  If  Jefferson  and  Washington,  Henry  and 
Lee  lost  sleep  any  night  it  was  this  night — not  in 
fear,  not  in  anxious  speculation  as  to  what  the 
governor  would  do,  but  in  earnest  consultation  as 
to  what  they  themselves  would  do. 

The  upshot  of  the  consultations  was  that  they 
resolved  to  hold  a  meeting  in  the  long  room  of  the 
Kaleigh  hotel  next  day.  In  the  long  room,  the 
famous  Apollo,  they  met  accordingly;  and  they 
passed  resolutions,  the  sum  and  substance  of  which 
was  that  they  would  boycott  especially  those  goods 
upon  which  the  tariff  was  laid,  and  boycott  gener 
ally  all  English  goods  which  they  could  possibly 
do  without.  Eighty-eight  of  the  late  burgesses 
signed  this  agreement;  some  others  refused;  and 
others  still  were  absent.  This  action  of  her  repre 
sentatives  Virginia  approved.  "At  the  next  elec- 

64 


IN   THE   LEGISLATURE 

tion  every  man  who  had  signed  the  pledge  was  re- 
elected;  every  one  who  had  refused  was  de 
feated.1 

In  the  meanwhile  the  British  Government  en 
forced  the  Tea-Duty  Act  of  1767,  but  had  derived 
no  advantage  from  it.  Some  eighty  thousand  dol 
lars  was  the  sum  total  of  the  taxes  collected,  and 
the  expense  of  making  the  collection  had  been 
about  the  same.  Governor  Botetourt  soon  recon 
vened  the  burgesses  to  announce  the  joyful  tidings 
that  Great  Britain  had  decided  to  recede  from  her 
position,  and  to  repeal  the  duties  upon  paints,  glass, 
and  paper.  Neither  Botetourt  nor  the  burgesses 
seemed  to  take  notice  of  the  fact  that  England  pro 
posed  to  retain  the  duty  upon  tea. 

It  was  at  this  second  session  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
made  his  first  effort  to  advance  the  cause  of  eman 
cipation  for  the  blacks.  As  the  law  then  stood,  a 
Virginian  who  freed  his  slaves  was  required  to 
send  them  out  of  the  colony.  This  proviso  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  sought  to  abolish.  True  to  his  lifelong 
habit,  he  presented  his  proposition  through  some 
one  else — some  one  who  could  face  a  crowd,  debate 
an  issue,  manage  a  parliamentary  battle.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  had  no  such  gifts,  and  was  thoroughly  con- 

1  On  page  124  of  his  remarkable  book,  Mr.  Curtis  relates  the  anec 
dote  of  George  Washington's  bashfulness  when  complimented  in  open 
session  by  Speaker  Robinson;  and  Mr.  Curtis  adds,  "On  the  following 
day  Jefferson  was  assigned  to  his  first  public  duty."  The  Washington 
incident  had  occurred  in  1759;  Jefferson  first  entered  the  Legislature  in 
1769.  Mr.  Curtis  is  wrong  by  ten  years. 

6  65 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

scious  of  his  defect.  On  this  occasion  he  put  for 
ward  Colonel  Eichard  Bland,  an  aged,  able,  emi 
nently  respectable  member,  who  was  willing  to 
offer  Jefferson's  bill.  The  slave-owners  roused 
themselves  immediately  and  fell  upon  the  vener 
able  Bland  and  his  objectionable  measure  with  a 
fury  which  showed  no  reverence  for  either  the  man 
or  the  measure. 

Virginia  at  the  time  had  almost  as  many  slaves 
as  free  men,  and  how  to  deal  with  the  situation 
had  become  a  question  of  extreme  difficulty.  To 
emancipate  all  the  negroes,  and  at  once,  was  im 
possible.  Nothing  less  than  a  social,  industrial, 
and  political  revolution  would  have  been  the  re 
sult.  Immense  harm  even  to  the  negroes  would 
have  been  certain.  As  Jefferson  himself  said, 
slavery  was  the  wolf  which  Virginia  had  by  the 
ears — to  hold  on  was  dangerous;  to  turn  loose  was 
equally  so.  How  was  the  problem  to  be  solved? 
It  was  easy  for  Vermont,  for  example,  to  abolish 
slavery  and  to  get  her  little  squad  of  negroes  free; 
but  how  could  Virginia  deal  with  her  vast  black 
population  in  any  such  off-hand  manner?  The 
races  were  too  nearly  equal.  There  were  too  many 
consequences  to  be  considered.  How  would  the 
entire  industrial  system  be  affected  by  so  great 
a  shock?  What  would  be  the  results  of  immedi 
ate,  unconditional  freedom  on  the  negro  himself? 
Would  he  become  the  industrious,  law-abiding 

66 


IN   THE   LEGISLATURE 

laborer;  or  would  he  prove  to  be  a  curse  to  himself 
and  to  his  old  masters  by  sinking  into  idleness, 
vice,  crime,  vagabondage?  Should  the  free  negro 
be  allowed  to  vote?  If  so,  upon  what  terms? 
Should  the  ignorant,  semi-savage  from  the  coast 
of  Africa,  where  voodooism  and  cannibalism  were 
rife,  be  given  the  same  political  rights  as  George 
Washington?  Should  a  jabbering  barbarian  who 
had  just  been  laboriously  taught  to  hoe  tobacco, 
and  who  profoundly  believed  in  the  powers  of  the 
conjure  bag,  be  permitted  to  go  to  the  polls  and 
kill  the  ballot  of  James  Madison?  Suppose  such 
privileges  were  granted  to  the  free  negroes,  how 
would  the  civilization  of  the  white  race  be  af 
fected — that  civilization  which  was  the  result  of  a 
thousand  years  of  intelligent  effort?  How  would 
social  life  be  influenced? 

On  the  other  hand,  suppose  these  privileges 
were  not  granted  the  free  negroes,  how  long  would 
it  be  ere  the  reign  of  the  black  incendiary  and  the 
white  renegade  would  set  in?  With  all  that  com 
bustible  material  lying  around — a  free  black  popu 
lation  almost  equal  in  numbers  to  the  whites — how 
long  would  it  take  social  and  political  agitators  to 
set  the  house  afire? 

Questions  like  these  were  ever  present  in  the 
minds  of  the  Virginians  of  that  period;  and  to  un 
derstand  the  conduct  of  our  ancestors  we  must 

67 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

place  ourselves  at  their  point  of  view.  To  judge  a 
slave-owner  of  the  South,  you  must  put  yourself  in 
his  place. 

He  had  not  originated  slavery.  He  had  not  em 
barked  in  the  slave-trade.  He  had  made  vigorous 
efforts  to  keep  the  traffic  out.  Virginia  was  the 
first  civilized  country  to  denounce  it;  and  in  twen 
ty-three  separate  acts  her  burgesses  protested  to 
the  crown  against  it.  But  the  whole  world  was 
committed  to  the  system,  and  Virginia  was  power 
less  to  stem  such  a  tide.  Massachusetts  had  been 
the  first  colony  to  give  express  legislative  sanction 
to  slavery;  and  New  England  was  sincere  in  her  at 
tempts  to  make  negro  slaves  profitable  in  her 
fields,  just  as  she  had  been  to  make  good  slaves  out 
of  the  Indians.  It  was  not  till  her  failure  had  be 
come  as  evident  as  the  success  of  her  Southern 
neighbors  had  become  exasperatingly  complete, 
that  the  bowels  of  the  Puritan  began  to  compas 
sionate  the  unfortunate  African — who,  in  literal 
fact,  was  vastly  better  off  in  Virginia  than  he  had 
ever  been  in  heathen,  slavery-cursed,  man-eating 
Africa.  The  Virginian  did  not  reproach  himself 
for  the  sin  and  shame  of  slavery.  He  had  no  cause 
to  do  so.  If  he  read  his  ancient  histories,  he  saw 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave  reaching  back  to 
the  very  dawn  of  time.  If  he  read  his  Bible,  he 
followed  the  master  and  the  slave  from  the  Alpha 

68 


IN   THE   LEGISLATURE 

to  the  Omega  of  the  sacred  book;  and  amid  its 
thousands  of  words  upon  its  hundreds  of  subjects 
there  was  not  one  in  which  the  inspired  writers 
warned  the  misguided  children  of  men  of  the  sin 
and  shame  of  slavery.  And  if  the  Virginian  had 
been  a  prophet  he  would  have  looked  forward  into 
the  twentieth  century  and  seen  slavery  in  some 
form  still  existing  in  every  nation  of  the  earth — in 
spite  of  Pharisee,  Scribe,  Saddueee,  abolitionist, 
missionary,  Salvation  Army,  Christian  Church,  and 
the  universal  brotherhood  of  man. 

The  clear-eyed  student  who  looks  beneath  forms 
to  find  the  substance  and  reality  of  things,  will  be 
happily  constituted,  indeed,  if  his  investigation 
does  not  compel  him  to  conclude  that  there  is  more 
actual,  degrading,  heartless,  soul-destroying  serf 
dom  on  this  earth  now  than  there  was  in  the  year 
1860.  As  far  as  was  possible,  the  Virginian  miti 
gated  the  evils  of  his  system.  On  many  estates 
the  life  of  the  slave  was  far  less  toilsome,  less 
racked  by  care  and  responsibility,  than  that  of  the 
debt-ridden  master  who  owned  him.  The  average 
negro  slave  was  not  only  better  off  than  the  aver 
age  free  negro,  but  was  more  securely  safeguarded 
against  want  in  sickness  and  old  age  than  was 
"  the  poor  white."  Benevolence  was  gradually  do 
ing  its  quiet  work;  and  under  the  influence  of  such 
men  as  Wythe,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison, 

69 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

and  John  Randolph  the  numbers  of  the  free 
negroes  were  ever  on  the  increase.  In  1781,  Vir 
ginia  already  had  upward  of  twelve  thousand  free 
negroes  within  her  borders — a  number  which  com 
pares  favorably  with  that  set  free  by  legislative 
enactments  in  New  England. 

In  repealing  the  Stamp  Act  Great  Britain  had 
made  a  declaration  of  her  right  to  pass  laws  bind 
ing  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever;  in  1770 
she  repealed  the  duties  on  glass,  paper,  and  paint, 
but  left  the  duty  on  tea.  So  that  at  each  turn  of 
the  contest  she  yielded  enough  to  encourage  oppo 
sition  and  not  enough  to  satisfy  it.  Nevertheless, 
the  colonies,  as  a  whole,  grew  quiet.  Tumults  al 
most  entirely  ceased.  New  York  repealed  her  non 
importation  act,  and  most  of  the  colonies  began  to 
buy  all  sorts  of  British  goods  excepting  tea.  The 
great  boycott  was  practically  at  an  end.  John 
Adams  quit  politics  and  gave  his  time  to  law.  Sam 
Adams  could  find  nobody  to  take  an  interest  in  his 
anti-British  talk.  Thomas  Jefferson  made  record  of 
the  fact  that  "  our  countrymen  seemed  to  fall  into 
a  state  of  insensibility  to  our  situation."  The  stu 
dents  of  Princeton  put  on  mourning  gowns,  and 
"  Lynch,  of  South  Carolina,  is  said  to  have  shed 
tears  over  what  he  deemed  the  lost  cause." 

In  February,  1770,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his 
mother  were  at  a  neighbor's  house  on  a  visit,  a 
negro  came  running  to  bring  the  news  that  the  old 

70 


IN   THE   LEGISLATURE 

home  at  Shadwell  had  been  burned,  the  dwelling 
and  all  the  contents.  Nothing  had  been  saved  but 
a  few  books  and  the  fiddle.1 

Mrs.  Jefferson  and  the  children  were  put  to  live 
in  the  overseer's  house,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  him 
self  went  to  Monticello.  Upon  the  top  of  the  little 
mountain  he  had  already  begun  to  build;  and  he  had 
completed  what  afterward  served  as  one  of  the 
pavilions.  It  had  one  large  room  on  the  ground 
floor,  and  a  couple  of  small  rooms  above.  Fixing 
his  residence  here  he  pushed  forward  the  work 
on  the  remainder  of  his  plan  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
Ground  was  cleared  and  leveled,  stumps  dug  out, 
terraces  made,  roads  constructed,  lumber  hauled, 
bricks  molded,  nails  forged,  rough  timber  dressed, 
and  the  walls  began  to  rise  under  Jefferson's  own 
directions,  in  accordance  with  his  own  plans,  the 
work  being  done  by  his  own  slaves.  It  was  a  huge 
task  in  those  days  to  take  raw  materials  and  un 
skilled  labor,  and  so  manage  both  as  to  secure  a 
substantially,  elegantly  finished  house.  No  city 
was  near  from  which  he  could  purchase  those 
things  he  could  not  manufacture.  Williamsburg 
was  the  nearest,  and  the  distance  was  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles.  Much  of  his  material,  sash,  for 
example,  had  to  be  made  in  London.  Not  in  one 

1  Mr.  Jefferson's  only  brother,  Randolph,  was  weak-minded — almost, 
if  not  quite,  an  imbecile.  Tradition  at  Charlottesville  holds  that  it  was 
Randolph  Jefferson  who  came  running  to  his  brother,  shouting,  "  Tom, 
we  saved  jour  fiddle  1 " 

71 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

year  was  the  home  completed — nor  in  ten,  nor  in 
twenty.  It  was  the  love-labor  of  a  lifetime, 
changed  from  time  to  time  as  his  ideas  changed; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  swallowed  up  a 
very  considerable  portion  of  its  owner's  fortune. 


CHAPTER  V 

REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

THE  spirit  of  antagonism  which  was  growing 
between  royal  officers  and  the  people  of  the  colo 
nies  led  to  a  bloody  crisis  in  North  Carolina.  On 
the  one  side  was  the  ruling  class,  which  seemed  dis 
posed  to  make  the  most  of  the  opportunity  to  plun 
der  the  taxpayers;  on  the  other  were  the  masses, 
who  were  disposed  to  resist  local  wrongs  with  the 
same  courage  which  had  been  shown  in  opposition 
to  the  Stamp  Act.  The  governor  of  North  Caro 
lina  was  Tryon,  a  bold,  able,  unscrupulous  man. 
He  was  at  this  time  squandering  seventy  odd 
thousand  dollars  in  building  for  himself  a  splen 
did  palace,  and  taxes  were  increased  to  meet  the 
heavy  drains.  Like  master,  like  man;  the  spirit 
of  extortion  beginning  with  the  governor,  ran 
along  down  the  line  to  the  lowest  bailiff.  Promises 
of  redress  of  grievances  had  been  made,  but  had 
not  been  kept.  Things  were  going  from  bad  to 
worse.  The  discontented  held  meetings  to  "  in 
quire  whether  the  freemen  of  the  country  labored 
under  any  abuse  of  power,  and,  if  so,  what  meas 
ures  should  be  taken."  The  Regulators  sprang  into 
existence  (1767).  This  was  the  first  organized  re 
sistance  to  British  tyranny  since  Bacon's  glorious 

73 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

rebellion  in  Virginia.  These  freemen  of  North 
Carolina  adopted  resolutions  to  pay  only  such  taxes 
as  were  agreeable  to  law  and  applied  to  the  pur 
poses  therein  named;  and  to  pay  no  officer  more 
than  his  legal  fees. 

The  North  Carolina  patriots  were  led  by  Her 
man  Husbands,  a  large  landowner  of  Quaker  an 
cestry,  related  to  Benjamin  Franklin.  There  was 
no  blemish  upon  his  character,  and  his  motives  at 
this  crisis  were  precisely  the  same  as  those  which 
inspired  Patrick  Henry  and  Samuel  Adams.  His 
pen  wrote  the  resolutions  already  mentioned,  reso 
lutions  which  no  just  government  would  have  con 
demned. 

Governor  Tryon  put  Husbands  under  arrest,  and 
dragged  him  off  to  Hillsborough.  The  people  rose 
to  his  rescue  and  set  him  free.  The  royal  officers 
collected  a  body  of  troopers,  rode  fifty  miles  after 
Husbands,  seized  him,  and  flung  him  into  jail.  The 
Regulators  ran  to  arms  (May,  1768),  but  Husbands 
had  been  released  on  bond.  On  May  21,  1768,  the 
Regulators  held  a  general  meeting  and  appointed 
two  of  their  number  to  present  an  address,  their  ap 
peal  for  justice  to  the  governor.  The  paper  was  laid 
before  the  council,  which  decided  that  the  alleged 
abuses  did  not  excuse  the  conduct  of  the  Regula 
tors — which  conduct,  if  persisted  in,  would  amount 
to  high  treason. 

In  the  meantime  the  governor  was  willing  to 

74 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

publish  a  proclamation  admonishing  all  royal  offi 
cers  to  be  good.  The  burning  hearts  of  patriots 
were  soothed  by  the  further  assurance  that  the  At 
torney-General  would  prosecute  every  one  of  his 
brother  officers  who  had  done  anything  wrong. 
These  soft  answers  failed  to  turn  away  the  wrath 
of  our  ancestors.  They  had  heard  such  talk  before, 
and  knew  its  value.  The  Regulators  continued  to 
assemble,  to  enlist  their  men  and  to  train  them  to 
use  of  arms;  and.  the  governor  raised  a  large  body 
of  troops.  He  ordered  the  Regulators  to  disperse, 
and  demanded  hostages  for  the  appearance  of  Hus 
bands  to  stand  trial  for  riot.  The  hostages  were 
refused,  but  the  governor  was  told  that  if  he  would 
summon  a  new  Assembly,  pardon  past  disturbances, 
and  allow  the  disaffected  to  come  peaceably  and  lay 
their  grievances  before  him  and  the  new  Assembly, 
they  would  disband  and  would  pay  their  taxes. 

Husbands  stood  his  trial  and  was  acquitted. 
Other  Regulators  were  less  fortunate;  they  were 
convicted,  imprisoned,  and  made  to  pay  fines  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  each. 

The  worst  offender  among  the  royal  officers, 
Colonel  Edmund  Fanning,  was  tried  at  the  same 
term  of  court  on  six  distinct  indictments  charging 
him  with  extortion.  He  was  found  guilty  in  each 
case.  What  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  this 
criminal  who  was  using  his  position  to  rob  the 
poor?  He  was  fined  one  penny  in  each  case!  Is  it 

75 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

any  wonder  the  people  were  wrought  up  to  mad 
ness? 

{Smarting  under  wrongs  which  they  had  tried  in 
every  way  to  peaceably  escape,  they  lost  all  confi 
dence  in  the  royal  officers,  and  determined  to  do 
themselves  that  justice  which  was  denied  them  by 
their  rulers. 

Courts  were  broken  up;  prisoners  rescued;  offi 
cers  defied:  violent  hands  were  laid  upon  the  per 
sons  of  lawyers,  and  some  of  the  king's  learned 
attorneys  were  dragged  from  the  bar  and  vulgarly 
beaten.  Edmund  Fanning  was  not  only  assaulted 
and  battered,  but  his  house  demolished. 

Why,  why  were  grievances  not  redressed,  abuses 
abolished? 

Why  should  those  in  authority  never  pour  that 
kind  of  oil  on  the  troubled  waters? 

At  the  close  of  1770,  the  General  Assembly  met 
at  Newborn.  The  governor's  magnificent  palace 
had  just  been  completed,  and  he  received  the  mem 
bers  therein:  and  he  immediately  demanded  the 
raising  of  an  army  to  put  down  the  Regulators. 

Herman  Husbands  had  been  elected  to  this  As 
sembly:  they  expelled  him.  He  had  written  for  the 
Gazette  an  article  which  did  not  please;  and  this 
pretense  served  as  an  excuse  for  getting  rid  of  him. 

This  Legislature  passed  an  act  making  it  a 
crime  for  more  than  ten  citizens  to  hold  a  public 
meeting  "for  the  disturbance  of  the  peace";  Or- 

76 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

ange  County,  which  had  elected  Husbands,  was  cut 
into  three  new  counties;  and  a  proclamation  was  is 
sued  prohibiting  the  sale  of  powder,  shot,  or  lead. 

Gathering  a  large  force,  Governor  Tryon 
marched  into  Orange  County,  and  the  Regulators, 
with  their  families,  fled  in  terror.  Their  crops  were 
destroyed,  their  homes  burned,  and  they  themselves 
declared  outlaws.  Their  property  was  confiscated, 
and  seized. 

The  bolder  spirits  finally  mustered  at  Great 
Alamance  Creek  to  await  the  governor's  little 
army.  They  had  no  artillery,  not  much  ammuni 
tion,  and  many  of  them  had  no  guns.  It  was  a 
straggling,  unorganized  crowd,  not  an  army. 

Again  they  prayed  for  the  redress  of  their  griev 
ances,  the  righting  of  their  wrongs. 

The  governor's  reply  was  that  he  had  done  all 
he  intended  to  do;  and  that  they  must  submit,  pay 
taxes,  and  return  to  their  homes. 

Tryon  was  a  man  of  energy  of  character,  as  his 
subsequent  career  in  New  York  demonstrated;  and 
he  felt  that  with  his  artillery  and  superiority  of 
material  and  equipment,  his  success  was  certain. 
He  gave  the  patriots  one  hour  to  consider.  There 
were  two  thousand  of  these  Regulators,  and  they 
had  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  wisdom.  For  four 
or  five  years  the  people  had  endured  wrongs,  had 
protested,  had  been  promised  reforms,  and  had 
been  deceived.  Those  who  oppressed  them  could 

77 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

neither  be  checked  nor  punished.  If  convicted,  the 
evil-doers  were  let  go,  unwhipped  of  justice.  Lead 
ers  of  the  people  who  rose  against  law-breakers 
had  languished  in  prison,  while  the  law-breakers, 
duly  convicted  in  open  court,  escaped  justice  by 
reason  of  Tryon's  protection.  And  now,  after  all 
these  years  of  misrule,  came  the  governor  with 
arms  in  his  hand  and  a  one-hour  limit  on  his  tongue, 
saying  to  the  freemen  of  North  Carolina,  "  Disperse, 
submit,  pay  taxes,  or  he  would  fire  upon  them." 
No  wonder  the  hot  blood  of  these  Anglo-Saxons 
boiled  within  them;  no  wonder  that  their  rash  re 
ply  was,  "  Fire  and  be  damned!  " 

Not  at  once  did  the  royal  troops  obey  Governor 
Tryon's  order  to  begin  battle.  They  were  North 
Carolinians  also,  and  they  shrank  from  this  brother- 
killing  strife.  But  no  promptings  of  humanity  can 
resist  military  discipline;  and  when  Tryon,  in 
flamed  with  anger,  rose  in  his  stirrups  and  shouted 
again:  "  Fire!  Fire — on  them  or  on  me!  "  his  troops 
opened  fire  upon  the  Regulators. 

The  result  could  hardly  be  in  serious  doubt. 
The  Regulators  were  broken,  and  they  fled  the  field, 
leaving  twenty  of  their  number  dead,  besides  the 
wounded  and  those  captured.  The  royal  forces  lost 
nine  killed  and  sixty-one  wounded.1  Captain  Few, 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  Wheeler's  History  of  North  Carolina 
and  Tryon's  official  report.  Upon  what  authority  Prof.  John  Fiske 
puts  the  number  of  dead  at  two  hundred  is  not  apparent.  Bancroft 
follows  Wheeler. 

78 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Regulators,  was  strung  up 
to  the  limb  of  a  tree  next  day  without  trial,  and 
strangled  with  a  rope.  Others  were  tried  for  high 
treason,  convicted,  and  put  to  death. 

Upon  the  head  of  Herman  Husbands  a  price  was 
set — five  hundred  dollars  and  a  thousand  acres  of 
land!  A  royal  proclamation  authorized  any  citi 
zen  to  shoot  him  on  sight.  But  he  escaped,  and 
made  his  way  to  Pennsylvania.  Tryon  and  his 
henchman,  Fanning,  soon  went  back  to  the  North, 
their  pockets  full,  leaving  one  of  the  fairest  por 
tions  of  North  Carolina  a  picture  of  desolation,  and 
leaving  the  taxpayers  to  groan  under  a  heavy  load 
of  illegally  made  public  debt. 

Fugitives  fleeing  from  the  misgovernment  and 
the  merciless  persecution  of  this  royal  governor, 
Tryon,  passed  over  the  mountains  and  rested  their 
tired  feet  in  the  pleasant  valleys  beyond — in  the 
future  Tennessee. 

Of  all  the  colonial  governors,  Tryon  is  said  to 
have  been  the  most  popular  with  the  authorities  in 
England;  and  yet  Mr.  Sydney  George  Fisher  mar 
vels  at  the  lack  of  love  shown  by  the  colonists  for 
their  mother  country. 

Is  it  true  that  the  royal  government  was  cor 
rupt,  oppressive?  Is  it  true  that  Fanning  was 
haughty,  cruel,  exorbitant?  Is  it  true  that  he  and 
the  governor  were  but  accomplices  in  plundering 
the  people  over  whom  they  had  been  put? 

79 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Long  after  the  butchery  at  Alamance  and  the 
burnings  in  Orange  County,  this  official  report  was 
made  to  Lord  Dartmouth  in  London  by  Tryon's  suc 
cessor,  Martin:  "I  can  assure  your  lordship  that 
these  people  were  grievously  oppressed." 

Tryon  and  Fanning  were  Tories,  despising  the 
North  Carolina  Whigs.  They  had  gone  down  there 
to  make  money,  and  they  made  it. 

When  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out,  they 
fought  the  Americans  as  they  had  done  in  North 
Carolina. 

Fanning,  the  arch-oppressor,  raised  a  Tory  regi 
ment  in  New  York,  and  after  the  war  became  a 
general  in  the  British  army  and  Governor  of  Prince 
Edward  Island. 

Tryon  was  the  author  of  the  New  York  plot  to 
kidnap  Washington,  and,  if  necessary,  assassinate 
him.  He  was  the  soul  of  Tory  resistance  in  the 
North. 

To  what  extent  were  these  insurgents  of  1771 
the  forerunners  of  the  men  of  Lexington  and  Con 
cord?  Remember  that  North  Carolina  had  taken 
up  arms  to  oppose  the  landing  of  the  stamps;  re 
member  that  this  insurrection  had  been  successful. 
That  was  in  1765.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  example 
sunk  deep  into  the  hearts  of  the  people? 

Therefore,  when  Tryon  taxed  them  to  build  his 
extravagant  palace,  when  officers  of  the  law  prac 
tised  extortion  and  fraud,  when  money  raised  for 

80 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

one  purpose  was  used  for  another,  is  it  any  won 
der  that  the  people  should  agitate  the  question, 
should  assemble  for  discussion,  should  pass  resolu 
tions,  and  should  endeavor  to  bring  popular  press 
ure  to  bear  upon  the  governor? 

Listen  to  the  declaration  drawn  up  by  Herman 
Husbands  and  read  to  the  court  of  Orange  County 
at  its  August  session,  1766,  the  year  following  the 
Stamp  Act  tumults: 

"  While  the  Sons  of  Liberty  had  withstood  the 
Lords  of  Parliament  in  behalf  of  true  liberty,  the 
officers  under  them  ought  not  to  carry  on  unjust 
oppression  in  the  province;  that  in  order  thereto, 
as  there  wrere  many  evils  complained  of  in  the 
County  of  Orange,  they  ought  to  be  redressed.  If 
there  be  none,  jealousy  ought  to  be  removed  from 
the  minds  of  the  people." 

The  paper  went  on  to  urge  that  public  meetings 
should  be  held  at  places  where  there  should  be  no 
liquor,  to  take  these  grave  matters  into  consider 
ation,  to  inquire  what  evils  existed,  and  to  adopt 
methods  of  correcting  them  if  any  existed. 

Surely  nothing  could  be  more  temperate  than 
this.  Here  was  no  rash  incendiary,  drunk  merely 
on  his  unruly  passions.  Here  was  an  appeal  to 
reason,  to  common  sense,  to  facts,  to  sane  judg 
ment.  The  case  was  not  even  prejudiced.  It  was 
not  dogmatically  stated  that  wrongs  did  exist. 
The  wrong-doers  were  not  arraigned  by  name.  No. 
*  81 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Herman  Husbands  merely  declared  that  the  people 
were  complaining  of  wrongs,  that  there  ought  not 
to  be  any  unjust  oppression,  and  that  if  there  were 
any  it  should  be  redressed.  He  did  not  seek  to  dic 
tate  methods  of  redress.  That  was  to  be  left  to 
the  people  in  mass-meeting. 

When  the  meetings  were  held,  and  the  existence 
of  grievances  was  established,  the  resolution  set  no 
law  at  defiance.  On  the  contrary,  the  Regulators 
pledged  themselves  to  pay  lawful  fees  and  lawful 
taxes,  and  illegal  fees  they  pledged  themselves  not 
to  pay.  Bear  in  mind  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  North  Carolina  were  poor.  Ready  money 
was  extremely  scarce.  The  fewest  number  owned 
slaves.  They  had  no  big  cities  flourishing  on  com 
merce.  They  had  no  mines  and  manufactures. 
They  lived  on  small  farms,  in  small  houses,  doing 
their  own  work,  digging  a  hard  living  out  of  the 
ground,  and  having  no  surplus  crops  to  bring  money 
to  their  pockets.  North  Carolina,  like  Georgia 
and  Connecticut,  was  almost  a  pure  Democracy. 
Therefore,  illegal  taxes  and  exorbitant  fees  and 
court  costs  were  a  real  hardship.  A  new  seventy- 
thousand-dollar  palace  for  the  British  governor 
seemed  a  monstrous  abuse — as,  under  all  the  cir 
cumstances,  it  was.  And  when  Edmund  Fanning, 
a  royalist  carpet-bagger,  came  down  adventurously 
into  their  State,  became  the  governor's  pet,  ran  the 
fee  for  a  marriage  license  up  to  fifteen  dollars,  and 

82 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

charged  one  dollar  for  attesting  a  deed  officially — 
growing  rapidly  rich  upon  a  system  of  plunder,  of 
which  these  two  instances  are  but  examples — the 
people  of  North  Carolina  felt  the  situation  to  be  in 
tolerable.  Had  there  been  but  one  extortioner,  had 
the  abuse  stopped  at  Tryon  and  Fanning,  the  bur 
den  might  have  been  patiently  borne,  so  vast  is  the 
capacity  of  the  people  to  endure  official  legalized 
spoliation.  But  when  every  officer  set  himself  to 
imitate  his  chiefs,  it  was  as  though  a  swarm  of 
locusts  had  been  sent  to  devour  the  substance  of 
these  poor,  pitiable  people. 

Their  cause  being  just,  why  was  their  failure  so 
complete?  They  were  not  skilfully  led.  The  move 
ment  was  not  made  general.  It  confined  itself  too 
closely  to  Orange  County.  It  was  not  widely  or 
ganized.  The  more  violent  spirits  committed  too 
many  excesses.  The  rebellion  put  itself  in  the 
wrong  by  its  riotous  attacks  upon  individuals  and 
private  property.  It  alarmed  too  many  vested  in 
terests. 

Such  men  as  John  Ashe  and  Colonel  Waddell 
went  in  arms  to  fight  under  the  royal  banner,  just 
as  the  Randolphs,  the  Lees,  and  Washington  might 
have  done  in  Virginia  had  the  extremists  there 
taken  up  arms  too  soon.  It  was  one  thing  to  rise 
against  Great  Britain's  stamp  distributor;  it  was 
another  to  make  war  upon  the  home  government. 

Many  and  many  a  patriotic  Virginian  who  had 

83 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

gloried  in  Patrick  Henry's  speeches,  disapproved 
his  armed  march  upon  Williamsburg  in  1775  when 
Dunmore  had  removed  the  powder.  Prudent,  slow- 
but-sure  George  Washington  refused  to  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  it,  although  the  men  of  Albemarle 
assembled  and  called  to  him  to  lead  them.  Pru 
dent  Pendleton  and  cautious  Kandolph  frowned 
upon  the  reckless  audacity  of  Henry  and  his  men. 
Only  when  success  had  crowned  the  rash  move 
ment  did  Patrick  win  praise  from  every  tongue, 
and  become  the  uncrowned  king  of  Virginia. 

But,  although  the  Eegulators  managed  badly 
and  failed,  it  must  be  owned  that  they  were  actu 
ated  by  the  true  spirit  of  liberty.  Theirs  was  the 
divine  indignation  which  drives  men  to  resist  op 
pression.  No  private  grudge  inflamed  them,  no 
sordid  motive  of  any  sort  appears  in  their  speeches, 
their  resolutions,  or  their  conduct.  They  stood  for 
principle,  for  right,  for  honest  government — that 
much,  nothing  more. 

Their  cause  was  not  the  quarrel  of  an  hour — it 
was  the  struggle  of  the  ages,  the  effort  of  the  weak 
and  the  downtrodden  to  throw  off  the  yoke  and 
break  the  chain. 

All  remonstrance  proving  null,  all  petitions  for 
relief  going  to  naught,  they  stood  at  Alamance  to 
fight,  as  the  pioneers  of  liberty  have  aways  done— 
as  Hampden  did,  as  Cromwell  did. 

"Disperse,  ye  rebels!"  cries  royal  officer  Pit- 

84 


REVOLT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

cairn  at  Lexington;  and  because  the  brave  militia 
of  the  North  stood  their  ground  history  makes 
heroes  of  them — most  properly. 

"Disperse,  or  I'll  fire!"  shouts  royal  Tryon  at 
Alamance  four  years  prior  to  Lexington. 

"  Fire  and  be  damned!  "  the  rebels  answer  back. 

Was  not  the  spirit  the  same?  Should  not  the 
historian  immortalize  these  men  also?  Would  he 
be  much  in  error  if  he  declared  the  patriots  who 
were  shot  down  there,  and  those  who  were  hanged 
on  trees  and  gibbets  there,  were  the  first  hero-mar 
tyrs  of  American  independence? 

"Surrender,  brave  men,  surrender!"  cried  the 
English  to  the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo. 

"Go  to  hell!"  (or  words  more  unprintable) 
shouts  the  dauntless  Cambronne,  while  the  Old 
Guard  draws  back  its  iron  squares,  muskets  bla 
zing  along  its  every  side  as  night  falls  upon  them 
and  upon  France. 

And  history  says  "Sublime!"  And  it  was  sub 
lime,  memorable  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

But  in  what  essential  respect  were  these  men 
of  Alamance  less  brave  when  they  looked  into  the 
muzzle  of  the  guns  and  sternly  shouted  back  to 
Tryon's  challenge,  "  Fire  and  be  damned!  m 

1  A  voluminous  History  of  the  American  People  has  recently  been 
published,  consisting  of  a  serried  array  of  pictures,  maps,  plans,  fac 
similes,  rare  prints,  photographs  of  old  documents,  handbills,  scraps  of 
ancient  newspapers,  and  quite  a  lot  of  other  things  raked  out  of  plun 
der  rooms,  museums,  and  curiosity  shops.  Incidentally  there  is  consid- 

85 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

erable  reading  matter  whose  author  is  Dr.  Woodrow  Wilson.  There 
are  five  bulky  volumes  of  this  stuff,  and  on  p.  164  of  vol.  ii  the  learned 
President  of  Princeton  finds  space  for  one  sentence  on  the  rebellion  in 
North  Carolina.  Think  of  it!  Nearly  two  thousand  pages  of  alleged 
history  and  just  one  short  sentence  to  the  tragic  chapter  in  the  story  of 
the  South !  And  what  is  that  one  sentence  ? 

"  In  North  Carolina  there  was  next  year  a  sudden  blaze  of  open  re 
bellion  against  the  extravagant  exactions  of  William  Tryon,  the  adven 
turer  who  was  royal  governor  there,  and  only  blood  extinguished  it. " 

Cold,  cold  is  the  pen  which  thus  traces  the  heart-breaking  struggles 
of  a  gallant  people  toward  their  liberties. 

The  "sudden  blaze"  had  lasted  more  than  three  years;  the  "open 
rebellion  "  was  resistance  to  armed  invaders  who  were  laying  waste  the 
crops  and  burning  the  homes  of  the  people. 

The  battle  of  Alamance,  where  three  thousand  men  fought  aud  artil 
lery  was  used,  is  not  so  much  as  mentioned  in  Dr.  Woodrow  Wilson's 
book. 

The  Boston  street  row,  where  a  handful  rioted  and  three  were  killed, 
not  only  gets  chronicled  under  its  historic  name  of  the  "Boston  Massa 
cre,"  but  occupies  six  pages  with  illustrative  matter  and  half  a  page  of 
Dr.  Wilson's  textl 


86 


CHAPTER   VI 

MARRIAGE   AND   MONTICELLO 

In  common  with  the  vast  majority  of  young 
men,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  known  what  it  was  to  fall 
in  love  with  handsome  girls.  At  college  he  had 
tenderly  nursed  a  passion  for  a  sweetheart  or  two, 
and  while  he  was  studying  law  he  had  been  sorely 
smitten.  Just  how  many  of  these  adventures  the 
young  man  had  weathered  before  he  met  the 
charming  Widow  Skelton  is  not  clear,  but  there 
were  several.  How  far  he  had  gone  in  the  direc 
tion  of  formal  offers  and  pledges  is  likewise  uncer 
tain.  Letters  written  to  his  bosom  friend,  John 
Page,  indicated  that  he  was  deeply  involved  with 
a  Miss  Burwell,  who  was  one  of  the  beauties  with 
whom  he  danced  in  the  Apollo  room  of  the  Raleigh. 
If  he  proposed  to  her  at  all,  it  would  seem  that  his 
offer  was  cautious — conditioned  upon  his  making  a 
three-year  tour  of  Europe.  If  he  really  asked  the 
lady's  hand  in  such  a  way,  he  was  rejected,  for  Miss 
Burwell,  preferring  a  man  who  was  ready,  accepted 
Mr.  Ambler  and  married  him. 

But  the  young,  handsome,  prospectively  wealthy 
widow,  Martha  Skelton,  caught  his  roving  fancy 
in  1770  and  held  it.  She  was  the  childless  widow 

87 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

of  Bathurst  Skelton,  and  the  daughter  of  John 
Wayles,  a  lawyer  who  owned  an  immense  estate 
in  land.  For  two  years  the  courtship  lasted— 
Jefferson's  fiddle  and  the  widow's  spinet  making 
sweet  music  together  much  of  the  time.  They 
played  together,  they  sang  together,  greatly  to  the 
discomfort  of  other  suitors  who  had  no  fiddles  and 
no  voice  for  song.  It  is  related  that  two  of  these 
suitors,  each  believing  there  was  hope  in  the  old 
land  yet,  approached  the  widow's  door  one  day, 
upon  marital  propositions  bent,  when  their  ears 
were  invaded  by  sounds  from  within  the  house- 
sounds  which,  upon  closer  attention,  seemed  to  be 
those  of  human  voices,  male  and  female,  singing 
in  harmony  to  violin  and  spinet.  These  belated 
suitors  listened  and  looked,  looked  and  listened; 
and  the  more  they  considered  the  sights  and  the 
sounds  within  the  house,  the  deeper  became  their 
conviction  that  the  harmony  was  too  sweet  to  be 
interrupted.  So  they  silently  stole  away — leaving 
Jefferson  in  possession  of  the  field  and  of  the  fair. 
On  New  Year's  day,  1772,  Thomas  Jefferson  and 
Martha  Skelton  were  married,  at  the  residence  of 
Mr.  John  Wayles,  near  Williamsburg.  In  his 
faithful  account-book,  the  bridegroom  itemized  the 
expenses,  including  tips  to  servants  and  pay  to 
the  musicians.  He  set  down  the  amount  he  paid 
the  parson  who  officiated,  and  also  how  much 
of  the  sum  he  borrowed  back  from  the  parson  that 

88 


MARRIAGE   AND  MONTICELLO 

same  evening.  The  groom  had  been  so  free  with 
his  purse,  feeing  two  clergymen,  tipping  quite  a 
lot  of  servants,  and  the  fiddlers  who  furnished  the 
music,  that  he  probably  ran  short  of  cash,  hence 
his  recourse  to  the  parson.  The  frequent  absence 
of  ready  money  among  wealthy  people  in  those 
days  would  seem  to  have  been  shown  in  one  of  his 
entries  in  the  faithful  account-book.  He  notes  that 
he  loaned  the  Widow  Skelton  a  small  sum  of  money 
two  days  before  the  wedding. 

There  were  joyous  festivities  at  "  The  Forest," 
the  home  of  Mr.  Wayles,  the  nuptials  being  cele 
brated  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  and  the  young 
couple  spent  some  days  there  afterward;  but  they 
were  eager  to  be  together  in  their  own  house,  and 
they  soon  set  out  for  Monticello.  Snow  was  on  the 
ground,  and  during  the  journey  a  storm  set  in.  The 
road  soon  became  impassable  and  they  were  forced 
to  leave  their  carriage  at  a  friend's  house,  and  to 
mount  the  horses.  The  last  eight  miles  were  passed 
in  this  manner  and  it  was  far  into  the  night  when 
they  had  made  good  the  ascent  of  the  little  moun 
tain  and  stood  at  their  own  door. 

The  negroes  had  long  since  given  them  up, 
and  had  gone  to  their  cabins  to  sleep.  No  lights 
cheerily  gleamed  welcome  to  the  bride;  no  voices 
greeted  her;  wintry  midnight  wrapped  the  solitary 
pavilion  with  "  a  horrible  dreariness."  But  they 
were  young,  they  were  happy,  they  were  sufficient 

89 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

unto  themselves;  a  light  was  soon  struck,  a  half- 
filled  bottle  of  wine  found,  and  the  best  of  the  situ 
ation  was  soon  made  by  even-tempered  Thomas  and 
his  winsome  bride.  Mr.  James  Parton — wonderful 
writer  in  his  way — suggests  that  they  spent  the  re 
mainder  of  the  night  reading  Ossian.1 

Mr.  Jefferson's  marriage  was  one  of  the  most 
successful  known  to  biographical  literature.  In 
the  harmony  of  the  relation  between  himself  and 
wife  there  never  seems  to  have  been  a  discord.  No 
shadow  ever  fell  between  them  chilling  their  per 
fect,  trustful  devotion.  She  was,  and  she  contin 
ued  to  be,  his  ideal  of  a  woman,  his  pride  and  joy  as 
a  wife,  an  inspiration,  a  helpmeet,  the  good  angel 
of  the  fireside.  She  was  beautiful;  with  luxuriant 
auburn  hair,  brilliant  complexion,  lustrous  hazel 
eyes.  In  person  she  was  above  the  medium  height, 
exquisitely  formed,  slender,  graceful.  On  horse 
back,  in  the  ballroom,  in  the  parlor  she  com 
manded  admiration;  she  sang  sweetly  and  played 
well  on  spinet  and  harpsichord.  She  was  fond  of 
books,  her  education  was  good,  and  she  conversed 
agreeably.  She  was  warm-hearted,  impulsive, 
frank,  and  loyal.  And  it  is  said  that  she  was  a 
good  housekeeper. 

1  Mr.  Curtis  with  characteristic  inaccuracy,  but  with  an  eye  to  the 
comfort  of  the  young:  couple,  allows  them  to  complete  their  journey  in 
the  carriage.  But  Mr.  Curtis  is  not  the  merciful  man  who  is  merciful 
to  his  beast,  for  he  compels  one  horse  to  pull  the  carriage  loaded  with 
two  people  up  the  steep  mountainside  through  a  three-foot  snowdrift. 
Such  cruelty  to  animals  should  not  go  unpunished  even  in  books. 

90 


MARRIAGE    AND    MONTICELLO 

Mr.  John  Wayles  died  in  1773,  and  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  inherited  from  him,  as  his  wife's  part  of  her 
father's  estate,  about  forty  thousand  acres  of  land 
and  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  slaves.  The  Nat 
ural  Bridge  was  on  one  of  the  parcels  of  this 
Wayles  land.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  got  nineteen  hun 
dred  acres  of  land  from  his  father's  estate,  and 
about  thirty  slaves.  At  the  time  of  his  marriage 
(1772)  he  had  increased  his  property  to  five  thou 
sand  acres  and  about  fifty  slaves.  In  his  Memoir 
he  states  his  belief  that  the  net  share  of  John 
Wayles's  estate  which  he  received  in  right  of  his 
wife  was  about  equal  to  his  own  estate.  On  the 
contrary,  one  who  follows  the  story  of  the  John 
Wayles  land,  encumbered  as  it  was  with  the  John 
Wayles  debts,  will  reach  the  conclusion  that  had 
Mr.  Jefferson  declined  to  touch  a  foot  of  it,  he 
would  have  been  better  off.  The  encumbrance 
amounted  to  nearly  nineteen  thousand  dollars  (not 
thirteen  thousand  dollars,  as  Mr.  Curtis  states). 
Had  he  sold  off  part  of  it  then  to  settle  the  debt, 
he  might  have  saved  a  handsome  property — quite 
as  much  realty  as  he  could  profitably  manage.  But 
for  one  reason  or  another,  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not 
bother  himself  about  this  British  debt,  and  the 
holders  thereof,  getting  a  good  interest,  were  not 
pressing  the  claim.  So  it  rocked  along,  year  after 
year,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  was  rearing  that  ideal 
home  at  heavy  expense,  and  was  indulging  his  taste 

91 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

for  fine  horses,  ornamental  gardening,  and  land 
scape  effects. 

It  was  not  till  1776  that  he  bestirred  himself 
about  these  debts.  He  then  sold  land  to  the 
amount  of  about  twenty  thousand  dollars,  enough 
to  wipe  out  the  claim;  but  he  sold  on  credit.  When 
he  offered  to  cancel  the  Wayles  encumbrance  with 
the  notes  which  he  had  taken  for  the  land,  the 
agent  of  the  creditors  naturally  refused  them. 

Mark  the  sequel.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  sold  at 
gold  and  silver  values;  time  passed,  and  the  col 
onies,  struggling  for  dear  life  with  Great  Britain, 
issued  paper  money,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  got  two  and 
a  half  cents  on  the  dollar  for  his  wife's  good  land! 

One  Virginia  Legislature  invited  British  debtors 
to  pay  what  they  owed  into  her  treasury,  promis 
ing  that  Virginia  would  protect  the  debtors  from 
the  British  creditors.  Mr.  Jefferson  deposited  his 
paper  money  accordingly.  But  another  Virginia 
Legislature  thought  differently  on  this  subject;  and 
the  State  issued  scrip  to  Mr.  Jefferson  in  lieu  of  his 
paper  money.  With  this  scrip  Mr.  Jefferson  bought 
himself  a  new  overcoat.  Thus  he  had  exchanged 
twenty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  his  land  for  one 
coat. 

In  spite  of  all  that  his  eulogists  say  for  him  in 
this  behalf,  it  is  but  too  glaringly  apparent  that  he 
owed  all  his  losses  to  his  original  blunder  in  deed 
ing  away  his  land  before  he  got  his  money.  In 

92 


MARRIAGE   AND   MONTICELLO 

1787  and  in  1792  he  again  sold  off  land  to  pay  this 
British  debt,  to  which  had  now  accrued  an  accumu 
lation  of  interest.  But  land  values  were  low,  the 
country  not  having  recovered  from  the  war,  and 
the  proceeds  of  these  sales  were  insufficient  to  re 
move  the  encumbrance.  In  his  last  years  he  was 
still  staggering  under  those  British  debts,  as  we 
shall  see  hereafter. 


93 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

THE  navigation  acts,  by  means  of  which  Great 
Britain  had  been  trying  to  "  protect "  her  infant 
industries  at  the  expense  of  the  American  colonies, 
were  so  intolerably  unjust  that  they  had  systemat 
ically  disobeyed.  In  one  way  or  another,  New 
England  had  outwitted  her  remote  mother  coun 
try,  and  had  established  a  thriving  commerce  with 
many  foreign  marts.  Ventures  in  the  French 
West  Indies,  ventures  with  the  Dutch,  ventures 
with  the  far  African  coast,  went  forward  briskly 
in  spite  of  England's  protective  laws.  Perhaps 
there  had  never  been  a  time  when  molasses  from 
the  West  Indies  was  made  into  a  larger  supply  of 
New  England  rum,  and  when  this  Puritan  rum 
yielded  larger  returns  in  negroes  from  the  jungles 
of  Africa.  In  God's  own  mysterious  way,  these 
Yankee  smugglers  were  doing  a  great  work.  First 
of  all,  they  were  feathering  their  nests  in  bleak 
New  England  with  soft  layers  of  Jason's  golden 
fleece.  Secondly,  they  were  lifting  the  savage 
black  from  his  environment  of  slavery,  voodooism, 
and  cannibalism,  to  put  him  in  a  state  of  bondage 
tempered  by  humanity — putting  him  where  he 
might  some  day  step  within  the  radiant  gates  of 

94 


THE    NAVIGATION   ACTS 

civilization,  bearing  within  him  the  new  heart  of  a 
Christian.  Let  no  passionate  lover  of  the  black  race 
revile  with  reckless  vehemence  those  smugglers, 
who,  in  a  roundabout  way,  swapped  molasses  for 
negroes.  The  profits  of  the  white  trader  were  but 
small  and  perishable;  the  benefits  to  the  uncouth, 
jabbering,  primitively  savage  negro  were  as  large 
as  the  opportunities  of  civilization,  and  as  perma 
nent  as  the  Christian's  reward  in  time  and  eternity. 

Great  Britain,  noting  the  growth  of  the  mer 
chant  marine  of  her  colonies,  and  viewing  with 
great  dissatisfaction  her  own  loss  of  revenues,  de 
termined  to  enforce  the  navigation  la\vs.  Hitherto 
she  had  not  done  so  because  of  the  fact  that  her 
hands  were  tied.  Wars  with  France,  wars  with 
Spain,  entanglements  here  and  complications  yon 
der,  had  diverted  her  attention  from  the  American 
colonies. 

Besides,  it  would  have  been  unwise  for  her  to 
embroil  herself  with  her  own  kith  and  kin,  particu 
larly  as  such  a  hostile  movement  against  the  colo 
nies  might  have  thrown  them  into  the  open  arms 
of  France.  Her  ancient  enemy  would  have  been 
but  too  glad  to  give  a  vigorous  push  to  that  thorn 
in  England's  side — as  she  did  at  the  very  earliest 
opportunity. 

But  in  1772  our  mother  country  had  no  war 
upon  her  hands.  And  now  was  her  time  to  deal 
with  those  smugglers.  Nothing  was  to  be  feared 

95 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

from  Prance  which  lay  shamed,  exhausted,  and 
inert  under  the  feet  of  a  harlot-ruled  Bourbon 
king.  He  had  lost  to  England  an  empire  in  Hin 
dustan,  an  empire  in  Canada.  His  European  in 
fluence  was  gone,  his  vast  Louisiana  territory  was 
gone,  his  courtier-led,  ill-provided  armies  had  been 
stupidly  generated  and  ingloriously  beaten  by 
everybody  everywhere. 

In  1772,  the  Gaspee,  of  eight  guns,  with  Lieu 
tenant  Dudingston  for  commander,  was  policing 
Narragansett  Bay,  to  enforce  the  British  naviga 
tion  laws.  Dudingston  was  one  of  those  conscien 
tious  officials  who  make  themselves  unpopular 
with  law-breakers.  He  was  likewise  one  of  those 
martinets  who  are  not  loved  even  by  the  law-abid 
ing.  He  stopped  all  sorts  of  vessels  at  all  sorts 
of  times,  and  with  an  exasperating  impartiality — 
mixing  and  mingling  the  guilty  and  the  innocent  in 
a  manner  which  nobody  liked.  It  being  his  duty  to 
search  vessels  for  contraband  goods,  he  searched 
them  all;  for  he  was  not  one  of  those  gifted  mor 
tals  who  could  tell  a  criminal  by  looking  at  his  face. 
If  Dudingston  boarded  a  vessel  and  found  contra 
band,  the  smuggler  was  angered;  if  contraband 
was  not  found,  the  honest  trader  was  wroth. 
Dudingston,  therefore,  became  a  most  unpopular 
man,  not  through  any  fault  of  his  own,  but  because 
of  the  protective  system  of  which  he  was  merely 
the  executive  officer.  When  one  of  our  eustom- 

96 


THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

house  people  opens  a  lady's  trunk  and  rummages 
about  among  her  undergarments,  frequently  hold 
ing  them  up  to  irreverent  view,  or  scattering 
them  around  in  disorder,  it  is  the  system,  not  the 
man,  whom  all  decent  folks  loathe  and  detest. 

When  a  French  officer  of  the  customs  ever 
so  firmly  requires  the  Frenchwoman  to  raise  her 
skirts  and  show  her  stockings,  the  search  being  for 
contraband  which  may  be  concealed  in  those  stock 
ings,  it  is  not  the  officer  himself  who  is  the  brute. 
The  guilty  men  whom  all  should  despise  are  the 
greedy  protectionists  who  demand  the  law,  and  the 
cowardly  politician  who  gives  it  to  them. 

Dudingston's  career  in  the  bay  was  brief  and 
not  glorious.  He  seems  to  have  been  elaborately 
entrapped.  At  any  rate,  he  received  a  sort  of 
dare  from  the  little,  swift-sailing  packet  which 
plied  between  Newport  and  Providence;  and  he 
gave  chase.  The  packet  led  him  twenty-three  miles, 
ran  in  close  on  Narragansett  Point  where  the 
wrater  was  shallow,  and  the  guileless  Dudingston, 
hot  in  pursuit,  ran  his  heavier  vessel  aground. 
There  he  stuck,  hard  and  fast.  The  packet  fin 
ished  the  remaining  seven  miles  to  Providence 
safely,  and  at  sunset  was  in  her  berth. 

The    captain    of    the    packet    was    thoughtful 

enough  to  tell  his  news  without  delay.     In  ever  so 

short  a  time  all  Providence  knew  that  the  odious 

Dudingston  was  aground  seven  miles  off,  and  that 

8  97 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

the  rising  tide  would  not  release  him  till  three 
o'clock  next  morning!  Such  luck  was  too  good  to 
be  thrown  away. 

The  captain  of  the  packet  had  no  sooner  told 
the  prominent  merchant,  Mr.  Brown,  than  the  mer 
chant  told  one  of  the  captains  who  was  in  his  serv 
ice;  and  this  captain  was  seen  to  hurry  off,  wear 
ing  a  pleasant  expression  of  countenance.  Soon 
a  drum  was  heard  in  the  streets,  and  then  a  voice 
proclaiming  the  forlorn  situation  of  the  Gaspee. 
Cordial  invitation  was  called  out  to  all  citizens 
who  would  like  to  bear  a  hand  in  the  destruction 
of  the  Gaspee  to  meet  at  Savage's  tavern  at  first- 
dark.  The  summons  was  gratefully  obeyed,  and 
by  nine  o'clock  eight  boats,  manned  by  the  repre 
sentative  citizens  of  the  town,  were  rowing  toward 
the  Gaspee. 

At  midnight  they  reached  the  British  vessel, 
surprised  the  one  sailor  who  was  on  the  watch; 
shot  the  lieutenant  who  came  hurrying  to  the  deck 
in  his  night-shirt,  boarded  the  ship,  and  easily  mas 
tered  the  leaderless,  half-awake,  and  wholly  unpre 
pared  British  sailors. 

Landing  the  captives  on  shore,  where  every 
care  was  taken  of  the  wounded  Dudingston,  the 
assailants  set  fire  to  the  Gaspee,  and  by  sun-up  she 
was  a  smoking  hulk;  while  the  daring  men  who 
had  boarded  her  were  rowing  home  to  breakfast 
and  congratulations. 

98 


THE    NAVIGATION   ACTS 

The  English  Government  was  deeply  stirred,  for 
the  burning  of  the  Gaspee  was  an  overt  act,  fla 
grant  and  defiant,  of  premeditated  high  treason. 
Who  did  it?  That  was  the  only  question  of  doubt. 
Proclamations,  offering  large  rewards,  wTere  issued 
without  results.  Royal  commissioners  were  ap 
pointed  to  investigate,  and  troops  were  put  at  their 
service  to  assist  them  in  bringing  the  culprits  to 
punishment.  Again  there  were  no  results;  inves 
tigation  failed  to  identify  the  guilty.  Parliament 
lost  its  head,  and  passed  an  act  to  punish  with  the 
death  penalty  any  person  who  should  destroy  any 
object  belonging  to  an  English  wrar-vessel — an  act 
so  general  in  its  terms  that  it  could  have  been  held 
to  embrace  the  most  trifling  article  of  ship  furni 
ture,  equipment,  or  naval  uniform.  Worst  of  all, 
the  persons  accused  were  to  be  sent  to  England 
for  trial. 

Mr.  Sydney  George  Fisher  says  that  "  it  is  diffi 
cult  to  see  how  the  government  could  have  been 
more  conciliatory  and  forbearing." 

When  the  Virginia  Assembly  met  in  the  spring 
of  1773,  the  Gaspee  incident,  the  commission  of  in 
quiry  which  had  been  created,  and  the  act  of  Par 
liament  which  threatened  the  entire  citizenship  of 
America  with  loss  of  trial  by  jury  in  the  American 
courts,  had  rearoused  the  spirit  of  resistance  to 
Great  Britain.  The  younger  members  of  the 
House,  Patrick  Henry,  the  two  Lees,  Dabney  Carr, 

99 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Thomas  Jefferson,  and  one  or  two  others,  broke 
away  from  the  more  conservative  counsels  of  the 
older  leaders,  held  private  meetings  apart,  and 
mapped  out  an  aggressive  policy.  Richard  Henry 
Lee  proposed  the  creation  of  a  committee  of  cor 
respondence,  and  Jefferson  reduced  the  plan  to 
writing.  Dabney  Carr  was  made  their  spokesman 
to  the  House,  and  on  March  12,  1773,  in  a 
speech  of  eloquence  and  power,  the  young  tribune 
moved  the  famous  resolutions  which  were  adopted 
unanimously,  and  which  caused  Governor  Dun- 
more  to  dissolve  the  House.  These  resolutions, 
citing  what  had  taken  place  in  Rhode  Island  and  in 
Parliament,  proposed  a  Standing  Committee  of  Cor 
respondence  and  Inquiry  to  obtain  information  of 
all  proceedings  of  Parliament  in  regard  to  the  colo 
nies,  to  keep  up  and  maintain  a  correspondence 
and  communication  with  the  other  colonies,  and  to 
report  from  time  to  time  to  the  House.  This  com 
mittee  consisted  of  the  Speaker,  Peyton  Randolph, 
Robert  C.  Nicholas,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Edmund 
Pendleton,  Patrick  Henry,  Dabney  Carr,  Archibald 
Gary,  and  Thomas  Jefferson.1 

The  dispute  as  to  whether  Massachusetts  or 
Virginia  should  have  the  credit  of  organizing  the 

1  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson  represents  the  secret  meetings  of  the 
younger  members  as  being  held  in  1772,  and  George  Washington  is 
named  as  one  of  the  group.  The  meetings  were  not  held  in  1772  and 
Washington  was  not  one  of  the  group.  Washington  did  not  get  left 
by  the  procession,  but  he  did  not  lead  it.  Henry  was  the  real  leader. 

100 


THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

revolutionary  movement  may  be  left  where  Ban 
croft  put  it: 

"  Virginia  laid  the  foundation  of  our  Union. 
Massachusetts  organized  a  province.  Virginia 
promoted  a  confederacy." 

Brilliant  Dabney  Carr!  We  see  him  here  at  his 
best,  at  his  highest.  We  see  him  unfurl  the  flag  of 
union,  see  him  on  a  pinnacle  of  patriotism  from 
which  he  surveys  every  colony,  planning  for  all, 
hoping  for  all,  inspiring  and  uniting  all.  The  warm 
impulse  of  brotherhood  opens  his  arms  to  the 
North  as  well  as  to  the  South;  his  rapt  vision  takes 
in  the  future  as  well  as  the  present  and  the  past. 
"  The  cause  of  one,  the  cause  of  all,"  is  the  gist 
of  his  speech  and  the  pith  of  his  plan;  and  while 
Rhode  Island  has  touched  the  chord,  the  music  is 
that  of  union — union  of  hearts  and  of  hands.  His 
last  speech  and  his  best.  His  one  great  appear 
ance  in  a  national  role;  his  almost  unconscious 
placing  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  Republic!  We 
see  him  here  with  the  radiance  of  inspiration  upon 
his  handsome  face,  the  clarion  call  of  heroic  pa 
triotism  on  his  lips;  we  shall  see  him  no  more  at 
all.  It  was  only  yesterday,  as  it  were,  that  Jeffer 
son  saw  him  in  his  "  very  small  house,  with  a  table, 
half  a  dozen  chairs,  one  or  two  servants,"  yet  the 
happiest  man  in  the  universe.  For  Martha  Jeffer 
son,  his  devoted  young  wife,  was  by  his  side,  and 
on  his  knee  his  little  boy.  "  He  speaks,  he  thinks, 

101 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

he  dreams  of  nothing  but  this  young  son.  Every 
incident  in  life  he  so  takes  as  to  render  it  a  source 
of  pleasure,"'  Independent  of  riches;  contented  in 
his  poverty;  happy  in  his  wife  and  child;  studious, 
but  no  recluse;  ambitious,  but  in  no  feverish  haste 
to  rise;  patriotic  and  earnest,  but  not  morbidly  in 
tense;  here  he  was,  in  1770,  a  philosopher  whose 
healthy  enjoyment  of  life  amid  comparative  pri 
vations  excited  generous  admiration  in  all  who 
knew  him.  Thirty-five  days  after  he  laid  the  cor 
ner-stone  of  what  was  to  be  the  greatest  of  all  re 
publics,  death  darkened  that  small  house  where  he 
had  been  so  unenviously  happy,  draped  the  poor 
wife  in  the  weeds  of  widowhood,  and  to  the  lips  of 
his  little  children  brought  the  wail  of  orphanhood. 
He  was  only  thirty  years  old — died  in  the  very 
glory  of  young  manhood,  died  when  his  readings 
and  his  studies,  his  hopes  and  his  plans  and  his 
dreams  seemed  just  to  be  leading  forward  to  the 
harvests  of  steadied  efforts. 

A  lost  leader!  Yet  it  was  his  to  speak  the 
word  that  lives,  to  do  the  work  that  is  imperish 
able,  to  set  the  example  which  is  an  inspiration  for 
all  the  years  to  come.1 

The  Virginia  Committee  of  Correspondence  met 
the  day  after  the  dissolution  of  the  House  and 
began  its  labors.  They  despatched  a  copy  of  their 

1  In  his  five-volume  History  of  the  American  People,  Dr.  Woodrow 
Wilson  finds  space  for  Dabney  Carr's  name — just  the  bare  mention  of 
his  name.  The  reader  is  told  absolutely  nothing  about  him. 

102 


THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

resolutions  and  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  colo 
nies,  requesting  the  appointment  of  persons  to 
communicate  with  the  Virginia  committee.  When 
each  colony  should  act  upon  this  appeal  and  ap 
point  its  committee,  and  these  thirteen  committees 
should  begin  to  consult,  mutually  agree,  and  act  in 
concert,  confederation  would  have  taken  place. 
It  would  only  remain  for  the  committee  to  meet  in 
general  conference  for  a  congress  to  have  been 
created. 

That  huge  corporation,  the  British  East  India 
Company,  being  in  financial  distress,  its  directors 
came  to  Parliament  begging  relief — it  being  a  pe 
culiarity  of  huge  corporations  to  consider  govern 
ment  as  having  been  instituted  for  their  own 
special  behoof.  Parliament,  as  is  usual  in  such 
cases,  gave  the  corporation  what  it  wanted,  reliev 
ing  it  of  tea  duties,  in  order  that  it  might  sell  tea 
in  America  cheaper  than  even  the  smugglers  would 
care  to  sell  it.  Behold,  then,  the  ships  of  Great 
Britain  bringing  over  the  celebrated  tea! 

On  December  2,  1773,  the  London  appeared  at 
Charleston,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
chests  of  tea.  Charleston  became  excited.  A 
mass  meeting  was  held;  resolutions  were  adopted; 
the  consignees  of  the  tea  were  asked  to  resign. 
They  did  so  amid  great  applause.  A  committee  was 
formed  to  manage  the  opposition  of  the  people  to 
the  landing  of  the  tea. 

103 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

No  consignees  calling  for  the  London's  tea,  cus 
toms  officers  seized  and  stored  it  in  the  cellar  under 
the  Exchange,  where  it  lay  until  1776,  when  it  was 
sold  under  legislative  direction  and  the  proceeds 
applied  to  public  purposes. 

The  statement  so  often  made,  by  Bancroft  and 
others,  that  the  tea  was  stored  in  damp  cellars, 
where  it  rotted,  is  not  correct  Even  Mr.  Sydney 
George  Fisher,  writing  The  True  History  of  the 
American  ^Revolution,  heedlessly  follows  the  leg 
end  of  the  damp  cellar. 

Dr.  Woodrow  Wilson,  scenting  danger,  stops 
at  the  word  "  stored  "•  —leaving  the  final  fate  of  the 
luckless  tea  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader. 

At  Philadelphia  a  tea-ship  hove  in  sight,  a  mass- 
meeting  was  held,  a  committee  was  appointed,  and 
this  committee  managed  so  well  that  the  vessel 
sailed  back  to  England. 

The  same  thing  happened  in  New  York,  and  also 
at  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

In  Boston,  however,  the  consignees  of  the  tea 
refused  to  resign,  and  the  town  was  soon  rocking 
with  excitement.  Once  more  Sam  Adams  was  in 
his  element. 

On  the  night  of  the  16th  of  December,  1773, 
some  forty  or  fifty  patriots,  prudently  screening 
their  patriotism  behind  the  war-paint  of  Mohawk 
Indians,  wearing  blankets  like  Indians,  carrying 
hatchets  like  Indians,  war-whooping  like  Indians, 

104 


THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

boarded  the  unresisting  tea-ships,  burst  the  help 
less  boxes,  and  emptied  the  contents  into  the  sub 
missive  ocean. 

The  value  of  the  cargoes  destroyed  in  this  man 
ner  was  nearly  eighty  thousand  dollars. 

Great  Britain's  answer  to  the  challenge  was 
prompt;  she  closed  the  port  of  Boston,  a  step  which 
meant  ruin  and  almost  starvation  to  hundreds,  per 
haps  thousands,  of  innocent  persons. 

This  measure  of  retaliation  was  to  go  into  ef 
fect  June  1,  1774. 

The  spring  session  of  the  Virginia  Assembly 
convened  while  the  country  was  agitated  by  news 
of  what  was  happening  in  Boston.  Messengers 
sent  by  the  Massachusetts  committee  came  riding 
into  Williamsburg,  bringing  full  details  from  the 
North;  and  the  two  great  sections  were  now  able 
to  act  in  concert. 

Again  the  younger  members  of  the  Virginia 
House  took  the  lead,  Henry,  Jefferson,  Kichard 
Henry  Lee,  and  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee. 

These  ardent  tribunes  believed  that  nothing 
would  prove  so  effectual  in  arousing  and  uniting 
the  people  as  the  naming  of  June  1st  as  a  day  for 
fasting  and  prayer. 

Usually  it  pleased  Mr.  Jefferson  very  much  to 
draw  up  papers.  He  delighted  in  it;  he  was  pro 
ficient  in  it;  he  never  tired  of  it.  But  for  once  he 
was  puzzled.  The  drawing  up  of  devotional  papers 

105 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

was  not  where  his  strength  lay.  His  flowing  pen 
and  creative  faculty  failed  him  sadly.  Behold  him, 
therefore,  rummaging  an  old  English  book,  full  of 
Puritan  forms,  hunting  about  for  a  style,  pious, 
formal,  scriptural — which  would  suit  for  June  1, 
1774,  when  Virginia  was  going  to  fast  at,  preach 
against,  and  pray  for  its  king — George  III. 

After  some  difficulty  Mr.  Jefferson  "  cooked 
up  "  a  resolution  which  he  thought  would  answer, 
put  it  into  the  hands  of  the  venerable  and  religious 
Mr.  Nicholas,  and  that  gentleman  offered  it  to  the 
House.  It  passed,  of  course,  and  June  1st  was  ap 
pointed  as  the  day  upon  which  Virginia  should 
fast,  pray,  and  humiliate  herself  in  the  hope  that 
Heaven  would  turn  the  hearts  of  king  and  Parlia 
ment  to  moderation  and  justice. 

Lord  Dunmore  knew  well  enough  what  all  this 
parade  of  piety  meant.  He  recognized  it  as  an 
other  method  of  agitating  and  uniting  the  people 
against  Great  Britain. 

Hence  he  again  dissolved  the  House,  and  again 
the  members  assembled  at  the  Kaleigh  to  consult, 
and  to  adopt  measures  denouncing  the  aggressive 
methods  of  Great  Britain;  and,  declaring  that  an 
attack  on  one  colony  was  an  attack  upon  all,  they 
instructed  their  Committee  of  Correspondence  to 
confer  with  the  other  colonies  on  the  expediency 
of  holding  a  general  annual  Congress.  They  fur 
ther  agreed  that  a  convention  should  be  held  at 

106 


THE    NAVIGATION   ACTS 

Williamsburg  on  August  1st,  so  that  if  the  other 
colonies  agreed  to  the  proposition  for  a  Congress, 
Virginia  could  appoint  her  delegates  thereto. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  chosen  to  the  House  of  Bur 
gesses,  and  also  to  the  convention.  On  his  way  to 
attend  this  he  was  stricken  down  by  a  sudden  and 
painful  illness,  but  he  forwarded  a  lengthy  paper, 
which  was  afterward  well  known  in  England,  as 
well  as  in  America,  under  the  name  of  A  Summary 
View  of  the  Eights  of  British  America. 

In  this  paper,  as  in  the  Albemarle  Instruc 
tions,  Mr.  Jefferson  boldly  advanced  to  the  propo 
sition  that  the  colonies  were  not  subject  to  any 
legislative  power  save  their  own;  "that  the  Brit 
ish  Parliament  has  no  right  to  exercise  authority 
over  us." 

This  was  going  far  beyond  Otis,  Henry,  Wash 
ington,  and  Lee.  In  fact,  it  was  far  in  advance  of 
any  position  Virginia  was  yet  ready  to  take;  and  Mr. 
Jefferson's  paper  had  no  immediate  influence  upon 
current  affairs.  It  is  a  very  lengthy  paper;  in  tone 
and  tenor  very  much  like  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence.  In  force,  vigor,  terseness,  reach  of 
thought,  it  surpasses  the  famous  Declaration.  It 
has  all  the  wisdom  of  the  mature  scholar  and  all 
the  force  of  the  youthful  tribune. 

"  From  the  very  nature  of  things  every  society 
must,  at  all  times,  possess  within  itself  the  sover 
eign  powers  of  legislation,"  hence  royal  governors 

107 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

had  no  right  to  call  legislatures  together  and  to 
dissolve  them  at  will. 

"  Kings  are  the  servants,  not  the  proprietors  of 
the  people."  For  writing  lines  less  bold  than  this, 
Sydney  lost  his  head. 

"  The  great  principles  of  right  and  wrong  are 
legible  to  every  reader." 

"  The  whole  art  of  government  consists  in  being 
honest." 

"  Only  aim  to  do  your  duty,  and  all  mankind 
will  give  you  credit  where  you  fail." 

"  Deal  out  to  all  equal  and  impartial  right." 

"  Let  those  flatter  who  fear;  it  is  not  an  Amer 
ican  art." 

"  A  free  people,  claiming  their  rights  as  de 
rived  from  the  laws  of  nature,  and  not  as  the  gift 
of  their  chief  magistrate." 

The  king  "  has  no  right  to  land  a  single  armed 
man  on  our  shores." 

For  the  year  1774  this  was  daring  of  high  de 
gree,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  on  the 
black  list  of  the  British  Cabinet  Thomas  Jeffer 
son's  name  was  entered. 

In  the  True  Thomas  Jefferson  Mr.  Curtis 
meekly  follows  the  lead  of  the  old  Federalist  wri 
ters,  who  used  to  try  to  cast  odium  upon  the  Jeffer 
son  principles  by  saying  that  he  learned  them  in 
revolutionary  France. 

If  the  student  cares  enough  about  the  question 
108 


THE    NAVIGATION   ACTS 

to  make  it  a  matter  of  research,  and  will  read  Mr. 
Jefferson's  Summary  View,  his  various  letters,  and 
state  papers,  previous  to  the  French  Revolution, 
he  will  find  every  principle  Jefferson  afterward 
professed,  every  principle  now  classed  as  Jeffer- 
sonian. 

The  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  having  been 
held,  political  sermons  preached,  and  his  Majesty 
King  George  III  prayed  for  in  a  seditious,  if  not 
treasonable,  manner — to  the  intense  displeasure 
of  Governor  Dunmore — the  cause  of  rebellion  was 
greatly  advanced,  and  the  delegates  to  the  conven 
tion  carried  with  them  to  Williamsburg  the  con 
viction  that  Virginia  was  about  ready  to  back  them 
up  in  any  course,  no  matter  how  radical. 

This  convention  of  August  1,  1774,  was  a  purely 
voluntary  and  revolutionary  body,  yet  it  merely 
repeated  the  old  principle  that  the  rights  and  priv 
ileges  of  their  fellow  subjects  in  Great  Britain  be 
longed  also  to  the  colonists.  The  call  for  a  general 
Congress  having  been  favorably  received  by  the 
other  colonies,  the  convention  proceeded  to  elect 
delegates,  Peyton  Randolph,  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
George  Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  Richard 
Bland,  Benjamin  Harrison,  and  Edmund  Pendle- 
ton. 

During  that  summer  of  1774  Boston  suffered, 
and  the  heart  of  all  America  sympathized  with  her. 

109 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

The  port  closed,  commerce  dead,  thousands  were 
suffering  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 

"  The  cause  of  Boston  is  the  cause  of  us  all." 
Boston  must  be  fed.  From  every  quarter  aid  is 
sent.  New  England  gives,  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania  give,  the  South  gives. 

North  Carolina  sends  food  by  the  ship-load; 
Maryland  sends  three  thousand  bushels  of  corn,  be 
sides  pork  and  bread  and  flour;  Virginia  sends  ten 
thousand  bushels  of  grain  and  money  by  the  thou 
sand;  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  send  cash  and 
rice;  verily  there  was  brotherly  love  in  those  days. 

So  powerful  was  the  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  the 
common  cause  that  when  Anthony  Stewart,  of  Bal 
timore,  faithless  to  his  non-importation  pledges, 
brought  over  on  his  brig,  the  Peggy  Stewart,  sev 
enteen  casks  of  tea,  the  public  feeling  against 
those  concerned  ran  so  high  that  they  made  hum 
ble  apologies,  renewed  their  boycott  pledges,  and 
as  evidence  of  good  faith,  burned  the  tea.  To  set 
matters  right  beyond  all  peradventure,  Stewart 
(on  the  advice,  it  is  said,  of  Charles  Carroll,  of  Car- 
rollton)  set  fire  to  his  vessel,  the  Peggy  Stewart, 
and  destroyed  it.  With  his  own  hands  he  applied 
the  torch,  and  tradition  says  that  his  daughter, 
Peggy,  sat  in  the  piazza  of  her  father's  house,  look 
ing  on,  while  her  namesake  was  being  offered  as  a 
voluntary  offering  to  disarm  the  wrath  of  indig 
nant  patriotism. 

110 


THE   NAVIGATION   ACTS 

"Peggy  Stewart's  Day,"  the  19th  of  October, 
has  ever  since  been  celebrated  in  Maryland  as  one 
of  the  great  historic  dates. 

The  professor  of  history  in  Harvard  University, 
Edward  Channing,  has  published  A  Students'  His 
tory  of  the  United  States,  his  aim  being,  one  would 
suppose,  to  attain  especial  and  critical  accuracy. 
On  page  180  of  his  book  he  classes  the  burning  of 
the  Peggy  Stewart  with  that  of  the  Gaspee,  men 
tioning  the  two  as  "  deeds  of  daring." 

It  is  painful  to  see  learned  professors,  who  write 
students'  histories,  going  astray  in  this  artless 
style.  Anthony  Stewart  burned  his  little  ship  be 
cause  he  was  afraid  of  his  neighbors;  and  to  class 
his  act  as  a  "  deed  of  daring  "  comparable  to  the 
audacity  of  those  who  burned  the  Gaspee,  is  not  the 
especially  and  critically  accurate  manner  in  which 
a  students'  history  should  be  prepared  by  a  Har 
vard  professor  of  history. 

In  1774,  Dunmore  led  a  large  expedition  against 
the  Indians  into  the  Ohio  country,  where  mutual 
outrages  had  at  length  brought  on  a  state  of  war. 
A  pitched  battle  was  fought  on  the  Great  Kana- 
wha  by  the  Americans  under  General  Lewis  and 
the  confederated  Indians  under  the  famous  chief, 
Cornstalk.  The  red  men  were  repulsed,  and  while 
their  losses  had  not  been  heavy,  they  lost  heart, 
and  sued  for  peace. 

The  Americans  were  eager  to  press  the  advan- 
111 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

tage  they  had  gained,  but  Lord  Dunmore,  who  had 
done  no  fighting,  decided  to  put  an  end  to  the  war. 

To  the  conference  which  was  held  between  the 
governor  and  the  Indian  chiefs,  one  of  the  leading 
warriors  refused  to  come.  This  was  Logan,  a 
headman  of  the  Mingoes.  At  the  commencement 
of  the  trouble  nine  of  the  women  and  children  of 
his  family  had  been  butchered  in  cold  blood  by  an 
officer  named  Greathouse;  and  Logan,  who  had  al 
ways  been  a  noted  friend  to  the  whites,  refused  to 
forgive  or  forget  the  crime.  He  was  willing  that 
the  war  should  end,  for  he  had  taken  his  revenge, 
but  he  would  not  make  friends. 

Pressed  by  repeated  messages  to  attend  the 
conference,  he  finally  sent  the  reply  which  was  pre 
served  by  Jefferson  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  and 
which  so  many  thousands  of  American  schoolboys 
have  spoken.  "  Logan's  speech "  created  a  deep 
impression  even  in  the  rude  camp  where  back 
woodsmen,  with  guns  in  their  hands,  first  heard  it; 
and  it  excites  mournful  interest  yet. 


112 


CHAPTER    VIII 

JEFFERSON    AT    MONTIGELLO 

FROM  the  time  of  his  marriage  until  he  became 
an  active  member  of  Congress,  Mr.  Jefferson  spent 
most  of  his  time  at  Monticello.  Public  business 
and  law  practise  caused  him  to  be  absent  fre 
quently;  but  the  better  parts  of  the  years  were 
passed  amid  the  delightful  scenes  of  home,  where 
children  came  to  complete  the  domestic  happiness. 

Eagerly  as  an  artist  at  work  on  a  model,  Mr. 
Jefferson  continued  to  rear  his  mansion. 

Like  the  old  Countess  of  Shrewsbury,  "  Bess  of 
Hardwick,"  who  believed  that  she  would  die  when 
she  quit  building,  and  who  actually  did  expire  dur 
ing  a  frost  which  stopped  her  workmen,  Jefferson 
never  ceased  to  make  alterations,  improvements,  in 
house  or  grounds  as  long  as  he  could  lay  his  hands 
on  ready  cash. 

And  next  to  designing  houses  for  himself,  he 
delighted  in  designing  them  for  others.  Public 
buildings,  private  buildings,  in  country  and  in  town, 
residential,  devotional,  educational — no  matter 
what  sort  was  wanted — Jefferson's  heart  glowed 
with  pleasure  when  he  was  asked  to  furnish  the 
plan. 

We  see  him  in  the  dawn  of  his  brilliant  youth 
9  113 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

laying  the  foundation  and  rearing  the  walls  of 
Monticello;  in  his  tranquil  old  age,  when  he  can  no 
longer  walk  or  ride,  we  shall  see  him,  telescope  in 
hand,  watching  from  his  mountain  observatory  the 
execution  of  his  last  great  undertaking — his  noble 
monument — the  University  of  Virginia. 

After  all,  the  instinct  of  the  architect  being 
that  of  the  artist  who  paints  pictures,  no  dwelling 
is  lovely  without  an  environment  which  charms. 
There  must  be  harmony,  or  the  picture  is  a  daub. 

True  to  this  principle,  Mr.  Jefferson  molded  na 
ture  to  correspond  with  the  house — the  house  to  ac 
cord  with  nature.  The  grove,  the  lawn,  the  terrace, 
the  gardens,  the  walk,  the  drive — he  thought  of  all, 
and  himself  directed  every  touch  which  trans 
formed  rugged,  unkempt  surroundings  into  culti 
vated  beauty.  He  loved  the  work  too  well  to  leave 
it  to  others. 

It  was  his  passion  to  impress  his  thought,  his 
preference  upon  everything  around  him.  Where  to 
plant  the  orchard  and  how;  what  trees  to  set  out 
and  where;  what  spot  to  level  for  flowers,  and 
which  for  vegetables;  how  many  vines,  shrubs, 
roots,  bulbs,  seeds,  nuts,  and  what  sorts;  when  the 
planting  should  be  done  and  in  what  way;  where 
the  terrace  wall  should  run  and  where  the  carriage 
turn;  in  eacn  respect  and  all,  the  originator,  the 
supervisor,  the  final  arbiter  was  Jefferson  himself. 
He  teaches  his  negroes  how  to  burn  bricks,  forge 

114 


JEFFERSON    AT    MONTICELLO 

nails,  frame  a  house,  set  a  window  or  a  door,  run  a 
stair,  lay  a  floor,  raise  a  dome.  He  employs  Ital 
ian  gardeners,  and  then  bosses  the  gardening  him 
self.  He  keeps  an  overseer,  and  then  directs  how 
each  field  shall  be  managed;  will  not  allow  lazy 
slaves  to  be  pushed.  He  names  his  hogs  as  he 
does  his  horses;  and  his  overseer  affirms  that  he 
knows  the  name  of  each  of  these  hogs,  and  that 
when  one  of  them  is  to  be  killed,  it  is  the  master 
who  designates  by  name  the  unfortunate  pig. 

Not  only  does  he  have  Italian  gardeners,  as  he 
will  afterward  have  a  French  cook,  but  he  takes 
lessons  from  an  Italian  music-master. 

Martha  Wayles  (wrho  is  now  Mrs.  Jefferson)  was 
taught  to  play  upon  the  harpsichord  by  Alberte;  the 
same  teacher  now  guides  Mr.  Jefferson  in  his  strug 
gles  with  the  violin.  When  absent  from  home,  he 
carries  as  part  of  his  luggage  a  small  fiddle  (called 
a  kit),  and  early  every  morning,  when  the  others  in 
the  house  are  asleep,  he  begins  to  practise,  keeping 
it  up  until  breakfast  is  ready.  For  three  hours  each 
day,  for  many  years,  the  persistent  Jefferson  has 
been  laboring  to  express  in  sound  the  music  that 
is  in  his  soul.  As  to  his  success  in  having  done 
so,  accounts  vary.  His  style  of  music,  like  his 
taste  in  cookery  and  house-building,  differed  radi 
cally  from  the  standards  approved  in  the  back 
woods.  Country  people  who  dearly  love  a  "  break 
down  "  do  not  understand  why  anybody  should 

115 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

play  a  hymn  on  a  fiddle.  Such  people  would  sit 
up  all  night  to  hear  the  catgut  ring  with  Arkan 
sas  Traveler,  Mississippi  Sawyer,  Cotton-Eyed  Joe, 
Soapsuds  agin  the  Fence,  Billy  in  the  Low- 
Grounds,  Devil's  Dream,  and  Durang's  Hornpipe; 
they  would  go  to  sleep  under  the  strains  of  Caval- 
leria  Kusticana. 

When  the  renowned  violinist,  Ole  Bull,  gave  a 
concert  in  Washington,  it  is  said  that  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  his  most  exquisite  renditions,  when  the 
audience  was  listening  with  that  intense  hush 
which  is  the  highest  tribute,  a  harsh  voice  clanged 
through  the  hall,  "  None  of  your  high-falutin'  stuff! 
Give  us  the  Arkansas  Traveler! " 

The  disturber  was  General  Felix  Grundy  Mc- 
Connell,  a  congressman  from  a  Southern  State. 

There  was  an  animated  struggle,  for  the  gen 
eral  and  congressman  was  stalwart  as  well  as  ob 
structive  and  belligerent;  but  in  the  end  they  man 
aged  to  put  him  out  of  the  house. 

To  such  a  man  as  he,  the  musical  performances 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  may  have  seemed  quite  tame. 
The  fiddlers  who  pleased  country  people  were  those 
who  played  by  ear;  Mr.  Jefferson  played  by  note. 
The  tunes  which  delighted  the  rural  citizen  were 
quick,  short,  full  of  life,  impelling  to  the  dance — in 
spiring  catches  which  made  the  light  leap  into  the 
eyes  of  the  young,  while  the  feet  of  age  softly  pat 
ted  the  floor,  keeping  time — merry  music  of  the 

116 


JEFFERSON   AT    MONTICELLO 

people,  bubbling  over  with  frolic  and  fun,  and 
bringing  to  the  lips  instinctively  the  old  ballroom 
call  of  "  Honor  your  partners! "  Sweet,  sweet  are 
the  memories  which  cling  to  these  old  tunes!  We 
danced  them  when  we  were  young,  our  fathers,  our 
grandfathers,  our  great-grandfathers  danced  them 
when  they  were  young. 

Fair  women,  bright-eyed,  rosy-cheeked,  light- 
footed,  go  in  and  out,  round  and  round  in  the  dance, 
radiantly  lovely,  innocently  joyous,  as  far  back  as 
eye  of  recollection  can  sweep.  And  as  the  fiddle 
talks — as  the  old,  old  tune  rings  to  the  rafter,  as 
the  pat  of  the  foot  sounds  on  the  floor — it  is  not 
only  the  boy  and  the  girl  of  to-night  we  see  as  they 
go  dancing  far  toward  the  morning,  but  we  see  also 
as  in  a  haze  the  shadowy  forms  which  come  troop 
ing  out  of  the  past,  the  vanished  lovers  and  the 
vanished  maidens  of  the  enchanted  realm  of  "  old 
times." 

To  country  people  whose  education  in  music  had 
never  gone  beyond  the  simple  tastes  of  nature,  it 
is  quite  probable  that  Thomas  Jefferson's  prefer 
ence  for  long-drawn  psalm  tunes  or  operatic  airs 
may  have  inspired  the  same  disgust  as  did  the 
French  cook,  whose  presence  in  Virginia  aroused 
Patrick  Henry  to  accuse  Jefferson  of  having  "  ab 
jured  his  native  victuals." 

The  time  not  having  come  for  the  feud  between 
these  two,  Patrick  Henry  and  Thomas  Jefferson 

117 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

often  played  violin  duets  together;  and  another 
brother  fiddler  whom  Jefferson  was  fond  of  playing 
with  was  John  Randolph,  son  of  Sir  John  and  father 
of  Edmund. 

This  particular  John  Randolph  was  a  man  of 
elegant  person,  manners,  and  accomplishments. 
Withal  he  was  one  of  the  best  lawyers  in  Virginia, 
holding  the  post  of  Attorney-General  under  Lord 
Dunmore. 

And  Jefferson  coveted  Randolph's  fiddle, 
yearned  eagerly  therefor,  and  entered  into  a  queer 
contract  by  the  terms  of  which  he  was  to  have  the 
fiddle  for  three  hundred  dollars  if  he  outlived  Ran 
dolph. 

As  a  consideration,  moving  to  Randolph,  he  was 
to  have  books  of  Jefferson's  to  the  value  of  four 
thousand  dollars,  in  case  he  outlived  Jefferson. 

With  great  formality  Jefferson  had  this  agree 
ment  put  into  legal  shape,  attested  by  George 
Wythe,  Patrick  Henry,  and  five  others;  proved  be 
fore  the  clerk  of  the  court,  and  spread  upon  the 
records. 

And  now  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  was  at 
hand.  Old  things  were  passing  away. 

The  easy-going  times  of  peace,  social  repose, 
and  political  quiet  would  be  seen  no  more. 

Ties  of  family  and  of  friendship  were  being 
broken.  Old  Lord  Fairfax,  the  self-exiled  hermit 
of  the  stone  lodge  in  the  wilderness  of  Virginia, 

118 


JEFFERSON    AT    MONTICELLO 

the  British  peer  whose  favor  gave  Washington  his 
first  lift  to  fortune,  will  grieve  over  his  young 
friend,  who  seems  to  be  going  astray;  will  soon  be 
saying  to  his  faithful  slave,  "  Put  me  to  bed;  it  is 
time  for  me  to  die." 

John  Randolph  feels  that  loyalty  to  his  king  re 
quires  him  to  follow  Dunmore  in  his  flight.  His 
own  son  is  cut  off  from  him;  for  Edmund  is  a  fire- 
eating  rebel  who  will  seek  service  with  Washing 
ton.  But  in  the  sadness  and  the  haste  of  his  going, 
Randolph  does  not  forget  Jefferson.  Money,  ready 
money,  will  do  the  exile  more  good  now  than  the 
violin.  Perhaps  he  will  not  feel  like  playing  it 
again  in  the  England  to  which  he  goes. 

So  Jefferson  gets  the  fiddle  now — gets  it  for  less 
than  sixty-five  dollars,  and  his  heart  is  made  ex 
ceedingly  glad. 

As  for  Randolph,  stanch  friend,  loyal  subject, 
superb  lawyer,  splendid  gentleman,  he  says  good-by 
forever  to  his  only  son  on  the  desolate  seashore, 
and  goes  his  way  to  London,  penniless,  ruined. 

Upon  a  wretched  pittance  from  the  British 
treasury  he  lives  in  poverty  at  Brampton,  a  broken 
man. 

His  daughter,  Ariana,  had  been  about  to  marry 
the  English  aristocrat,  Captain  Parker,  afterward 
Admiral  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  whose  signal  to  cease 
firing  at  Copenhagen  Nelson  refused  to  see. 

This  match  is  now  broken  off,  and  Ariana  weds 
119 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

an  old  sweetheart,  James  Wormely,  at  Dunmore's 
place  in  Scotland. 

Broken-hearted,  wandering  from  Brampton  to 
Dunmore's  in  Scotland,  where  his  kinsman,  the 
earl,  gives  him  a  welcome  which  makes  one  soft 
en  to  Dunmore,  eating  the  bread  of  poverty  and 
dependence,  proud  John  Randolph  did  not  live 
long;  died  in  1784,  begging  at  the  last  that 
his  body  might  be  carried  back  to  his  beloved 
Virginia. 

On  the  first  ship  that  came  across  after  the 
peace,  the  body  was  brought,  and  the  exile  rested 
at  length  in  the  college  chapel  at  Williamsburg, 
beside  his  brother  and  his  father. 

Generous  souls  will  not  fail  to  admire  the  de 
votion  of  such  a  royalist! 


Mr.  Jefferson's  establishment  at  Monticello  was 
now  very  large.  There  were  eighty-three  slaves 
and  thirty-four  white  people.  Included  in  this  lat 
ter  number  were  the  widow  and  children  of  Dabney 
Carr.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  no  sooner  buried  his 
friend  on  the  spot  they  had  chosen,  than  he  brought 
the  bereaved  family  to  Monticello,  where  his  house 
became  their  home. 

The  old  mother  yet  lived  at  Shadwell,  and  with 
her  Jefferson's  younger  brother,  Randolph. 

Serenely  happy  is  the  master  of  Monticello  in 
120 


JEFFERSON    AT    MONTICELLO 

these  quiet  years  before  the  war.  He  makes  and  he 
spends,  labors  where  work  is  not  toil,  loves  and  is 
loved,  is  in  perfect  health  of  body  and  of  mind,  and 
to  him  the  world  is  bathed  in  sunlight.  Little 
Martha,  the  first-born,  begins  to  toddle  about  the 
house. 

Husband,  father,  master,  neighbor — he  is  kind 
to  everybody.  He  loves  to  see  bright  faces  about 
him.  He  loves  to  give  pleasure  to  others.  He 
would  no  sooner  hurt  the  feelings  of  any  mortal, 
wilfully,  than  he  would  steal. 

Never  fretting,  scolding,  worrying;  never  cloud 
ing  the  sunniness  of  to-day  by  forebodings  about 
to-morrow;  never  souring  the  milk  of  human  kind 
ness  by  scowls,  sarcasms,  reproaches,  wrangles, 
or  malicious  gossip,  he  drew  on  the  bank  of  the 
present  for  every  legitimate  pleasure  that  stood  to 
his  credit.  He  believed  that  the  surest  way  to 
happiness  was  the  making  of  others  happy.  This 
gospel  he  preached  and  practised.  Serenely  confi 
dent  and  contented,  he  hums  softly  as  he  paces 
about  his  mountain  home,  measuring  everything 
with  a  tape  line,  weighing  everything  with  steel 
yards,  probing  everything  with  questions,  calcu 
lating  everything  with  pen  or  pencil,  seeing  to 
everything  with  his  own  eyes;  and  then,  at  night, 
or  at  some  odd  hour  during  the  day,  jotting  it  down 
in  those  faithful  books. 

A  variedly  industrious,  widely  intelligent,  emi- 
121 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

nently  companionable,  nobly  aspiring,  warm-heart 
ed,  benevolent,  bright-tempered  man. 

Just  the  kind  of  man  a  stranger  would  apply 
to,  a  beggar  hunt  up,  a  cynic  shun,  a  bigot  hate,  a 
sharper  pursue,  a  scholar  delight  in,  a  patriot 
trust,  a  neighbor  love  and  impose  on,  a  shyster 
outwit,  visitors  make  a  convenience  of,  overseers 
bankrupt,  philosophers  esteem,  fellow  statesmen 
respect,  enemies  ridicule  as  often  as  they  hated; 
friends  blindly  follow,  sincerely  respect,  and  good- 
naturedly  joke  at;  children  adore;  and  a  pure,  high- 
minded  wife  worship  with  boundless  affection. 

Mixed  sunlight  and  shadow  was  in  this  charac 
ter  as  in  all  others,  flaws,  foibles,  follies — the  gold 
not  wholly  free  and  pure;  but  as  nearly  deserving 
unmixed  affection  and  admiration  as  any  son  of 
Adam  whose  hands  were  ever  given  from  youth  to 
age  to  the  molding  of  better  laws,  better  institu 
tions,  better  conditions  for  the  human  race. 


122 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE   CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

THE  Stamp  Act  Congress  of  1765,  called  at  the 
instance  of  Massachusetts,  had  taken  a  conserva 
tive  position.  In  the  Declaration  of  Rights  then  is 
sued,  the  colonies  merely  claimed  local  self-govern 
ment  and  self-taxation,  together  with  trial  by  jury 
in  the  colonial  courts. 

In  the  Congress  which  met  at  Philadelphia,  Sep 
tember  5, 1774,  the  Petition  to  the  King  for  Redress 
of  Grievances  was  couched,  as  in  1765,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  loyal  subjects;  and  the  Declaration  of 
Rights  made  no  marked  advance  over  that  of  1765, 
so  far  as  assertion  of  principles  was  concerned. 
They  tightened  the  bands  of  the  boycott  against 
the  mother  country;  organized  to  enforce  this  boy 
cott;  and  resolved  to  ostracize  all  such  American 
citizens  as  continued  to  deal  with  Great  Britain. 
In  fact,  the  attitude  taken  by  Washington,  Lee, 
Henry,  Adams,  Sherman,  Jay,  Dickinson,  and  Rut- 
ledge  was  substantially  that  of  a  labor  union  of 
the  present  day  during  a  struggle  with  a  capitalis 
tic  trust.  Those  Americans  who  would  not  join  the 
association  and  boycott  Great  Britain  were  "  ene- 

123 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

mies  to  the  liberties  of  their  country,"  and  were 
themselves  to  be  boycotted.  These  recreants  to  the 
common  cause  were  "  scabs  "  for  whom  Washing 
ton,  Adams,  Lee,  Jay,  and  Sherman  had  no  respect, 
had  only  angry  scorn  and  bitter  animosity.  Times 
change,  but  human  nature  simply  goes  round  and 
round. 

The  absence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  from  the  Virginia 
Convention  of  1774  was  no  doubt  the  reason  why 
he  was  not  chosen  by  that  body  as  one  of  the  dele 
gates  to  the  first  Continental  Congress.  In  Janu 
ary,  1775,  he  was  elected  by  the  citizens  of  Albe- 
marie  as  a  member  of  their  Committee  of  Safety; 
and  in  March,  1775,  he  served  as  their  delegate  to 
the  second  Convention,  which  met  in  Richmond. 

It  was  in  this  Convention  that  Patrick  Henry 
made  the  speech  so  familiar  to  all,  the  burden  of 
which  was  "  We  must  fight!  "  It  was  upon  his  mo 
tion  that  a  committee  was  named  to  prepare  Vir 
ginia  for  the  coming  conflict. 

With  George  Washington  acting  as  chief  of  a 
Revolutionary  Committee  charged  with  the  duty  of 
"embodying,  arming,  and  disciplining"  rebels, 
Lord  Dunmore  thought  it  high  time  to  put  the 
king's  powder  where  his  subjects  could  not  lay  re 
bellious  hands  upon  it.  On  the  night  of  April  20, 
1775,  he  caused  a  squad  of  marines  from  a  British 
war-vessel  in  James  River  to  come  to  Williams- 
burg,  seize  the  powder,  and  cart  it  away  to  the  ship. 

124 


THE   CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

As  soon  as  this  fact  became  known,  the  patriots 
assembled  in  arms.  At  Fredericksburg  the  rebels 
were  persuaded  by  Randolph  and  Pendleton  to  dis 
perse;  at  Charlottesville  they  did  not  act,  because 
Washington  failed  to  come  at  their  call.  But  in 
Hanover  County,  Patrick  Henry  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  volunteers,  and  straightway  began  the 
armed  march  of  thousands  to  Williamsburg.  Dun- 
more  fired  off  that  habitual  weapon  of  administra 
tive  warfare — a  proclamation.  His  family  fled  to 
the  shelter  of  a  British  ship.  Marines  were  landed 
to  protect  the  royal  authorities. 

But  Patrick  Henry,  deaf  to  all  timid  counsels 
of  "  the  conservative  element,"  came  marching  on. 
Dunmore's  nerve  failed  him;  and  when  the  rebels 
had  come  to  Doncastle,  sixteen  miles  off,  he  sent 
a  messenger  offering  pay  for  the  powder.  In 
his  haste,  he  sent  a  larger  sum  than  the  powder  was 
worth;  and  Henry,  not  aware  that  British  marines 
had  been  landed  and  threats  made  to  fire  upon  the 
town,  drew  off  and  disbanded  his  men.  And  as  he 
wended  his  way  homeward,  the  most  popular  now 
of  all  Virginians,  Dunmore  fired  at  him  again — 
with  another  proclamation. 

In  June,  1775,  Lord  Dunmore  convened  the  bur 
gesses  to  take  into  consideration  Lord  North's  Con 
ciliatory  Proposition.  Many  of  the  members  came 
to  this  session  wearing  their  hunting-shirts  and 
bringing  their  rifles. 

125 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Peyton  Randolph,  who  was  President  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  was  now  called  home  to  pre 
side  over  the  burgesses;  and  Mr.  Jefferson  went  to 
Philadelphia  to  succeed  him — the  Eichmond  Con 
vention  having  foreseen  this  vacancy  and  having 
elected  Mr.  Jefferson  to  fill  it.  Before  his  departure 
from  the  Virginia  Assembly,  however,  he  had  been 
asked  to  prepare  a  reply  to  Lord  North's  proposi 
tion,  and  had  done  so.  With  slight  changes,  his 
paper  was  adopted  by  the  House.  This  "  Concilia 
tory  Proposition  "  was,  in  substance,  that  Parlia 
ment  would  exempt  from  imperial  taxation  any 
colony  which  would  voluntarily  make  such  contri 
bution  to  the  common  defense  of  the  empire,  and 
establish  such  fixed  provision  for  the  support  of  its 
own  civil  government  as  Parliament  should  ap 
prove.  The  objections  to  his  proposal  were  obvious. 
It  sought  to  deal  with  the  colonies  separately;  it 
left  grievances  unredressed;  and  it  quieted  no 
body's  fears  about  being  transported  to  England 
for  trial. 

The  unbiased  reader  is  inclined  to  believe  that 
Great  Britain  would  have  found  it  next  to  impos 
sible  to  conciliate  her  colonies  at  this  time  by  any 
proposition  which  did  not  concede  the  fullest  meas 
ure  of  local  self-government.  The  thought  of  be 
ing  ruled  by  masters  beyond  seas  had  grown  hate 
ful;  and  while  vast  differences  of  opinion  existed 
as  to  ways  and  means,  policy  and  management,  the 

126 


THE    CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

people  were  substantially  united  in  their  determina 
tion  to  make  their  own  laws  and  administer  their 
own  affairs. 

Professor  Channing,  who  professes  and  writes 
history  at  Harvard  University,  states  that  Jeffer 
son  succeeded  Washington  in  the  Virginia  delega 
tion  to  Congress.  This  is  one  of  the  learned 
professor's  numerous  errors  in  that  Student's  His 
tory  of  his.  At  the  time  that  the  Richmond  Con 
vention  elected  Mr.  Jefferson  to  Congress,  Wash 
ington  had  not  been  appointed  Commander-in-Chief, 
and  the  Virginians  could  not  possibly  have  foreseen 
that  there  would  be  such  a  vacancy  in  their  dele 
gation.  What  they  did  foresee  was  that  Peyton 
Randolph  might  be  called  home  from  Congress  to 
preside  over  the  Virginia  Legislature;  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  was  elected  to  take  Randolph's  place  in 
Congress,  should  that  vacancy  occur.  Randolph  was 
called  home,  and  Jefferson  went  forward  to  take 
his  place  in  Congress. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  reputation  at  the  time  he  entered 
the  Congress  in  1775  was  already  established 
throughout  the  colonies.  By  those  who  had  kept 
posted  on  passing  events,  he  was  known  as  a  ripe 
scholar,  an  advanced  thinker,  an  aggressive  pa 
triot,  and  a  forceful,  ready  writer  of  political 
papers. 

On  the  day  that  Jefferson  took  his  seat  in  Con 
gress,  the  news  of  Bunker  Hill  came  ringing 

127 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

through  the  land,  thrilling  every  patriot  soul.  Five 
days  afterward  he  was  placed  upon  the  committee 
which  had  in  hand  the  preparation  of  an  Address 
setting  forth  the  American  side  of  the  controversy 
with  their  king,  the  reasons  why  the  colonies  were 
in  arms.  John  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  had 
drawn  up  a  statement,  a  statement  which  the  Com 
mittee  did  not  like. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  now  asked  to  try  his  pen. 
Ready  as  ever,  the  flowing  sentences  filled  page 
after  page,  and  the  Address  was  submitted.  Again 
the  Committee  was  not  pleased;  the  language  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  too  strong.  Mr.  Dickinson,  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  the  chief  objector;  and  it  was 
now  his  turn  to  attempt  to  set  forth  the  reason  why 
his  Majesty's  faithful  subjects  were  shooting 
his  Majesty's  soldiers  and  blockading  his  Majesty's 
forces  in  Boston.  His  mild,  prudent  paper  was 
adopted. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  however,  drew  up  the  reply  which 
Congress  made  to  Lord  North's  Conciliatory  Propo 
sition. 

It  was  in  the  committee-room  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  the  most  effective.  Here  he  felt  no  embarrass 
ment,  and  was  at  his  best.  His  information  was  so 
great,  his  thoughts  so  bold  and  clear,  his  readiness 
to  take  hold  of  the  laboring-oar  so  frank  and 
earnest,  that  he  made  a  fine  impression  upon  all  of 
his  colleagues. 

128 


THE   CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

His  temper  was  conciliatory.  He  steered  clear 
of  personal  feuds.  His  soft  answers  turned  away 
wrath.  His  readiness  to  submit  to  correction  dis 
armed  malice.  He  made  no  parade  of  his  learning. 
He  did  not  sulk  in  his  tent  because  his  own  papers 
were  cast  aside,  and  his  own  plans  condemned. 
Even  John  Adams  loved  him.  And  between  Jeffer 
son  and  Samuel  Adams,  true  democrats  both,  the 
relations  were  so  cordial,  based  upon  such  harmony 
of  conviction,  that  there  never  was  a  rupture  be 
tween  them. 


"  In  May,  1775,  George  Washington,  on  his  vvay 
to  Congress,  met  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Boucher,  in  the 
middle  of  the  Potomac.  While  their  boats  paused, 
the  clergyman  warned  his  friend  that  the  path  on 
which  he  was  entering  might  lead  to  '  a  separation 
from  England.' " 

Washington's  answer  to  the  preacher  was  in 
temper  and  substance,  "  Is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that 
he  should  do  this  thing?  " 

John  Jay  is  quoted  as  having  solemnly  declared 
that  prior  to  that  second  Petition  of  the  Congress 
of  1775,  he  had  never  heard  of  anybody  mentioning 
such  a  word  as  Independence,  contemplating  such  a 
thing  as  separation  from  Great  Britain. 

Yet  the  truth  is  that  in  1775  there  was,  and  had 
long  been,  a  party  in  the  colonies  which  was  aweary 
!0  129 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

of  British  insolence,  British  greed,  and  British  en 
croachments. 

Southern  planters  were  tired  of  being  robbed 
by  English  tariffs  and  English  factors.  Northern 
merchants  were  tired  of  Navigation  Acts  which 
drove  all  their  goods,  ships,  and  profits  to  London 
and  Liverpool.  The  manner  in  which  Great  Brit 
ain  had  interfered  to  destroy  the  local  currency  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts  was  resented;  the 
arrogant  tone  of  superiority  in  which  Tory  leaders 
in  Parliament  had  spoken  of  the  colonists  individ 
ually  and  collectively  was  resented;  the  plain  pur 
pose  wrhich  England  showed  of  reducing  the  Amer 
icans  to  submission  and  taxing  them  at  will  was  re 
sented.  And  when  she  struck  at  Ehode  Island  with 
High  Commissions  backed  by  Admirals  and  Gen 
erals;  when  she  threatened  to  take  away  trial  by 
jury  and  deport  prisoners  to  England;  when  she 
threw  the  penalty  of  death  around  brass  buttons, 
tar-buckets,  rope-ends,  and  water-barrels  belonging 
to  her  men-of-war,  she  aroused  bitter  enmity  in  the 
breast  of  every  American  Whig  who  could  read  or 
think  or  feel. 

When  she  garrisoned  Boston  with  red-coats, 
when  she  struck  at  the  Massachusetts  Charter, 
when  she  stretched  the  boundary  line  of  Canada 
hundreds  of  miles  southward,  when  she  closed  the 
Boston  port  and  began  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  a 
thousand  innocent  persons  in  order  to  punish  one 

130 


THE    CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS 

culprit,  every  colony  was  alarmed,  indignant,  re 
sentful,  swept  into  the  current  of  a  common 
cause. 

All  this  was  prior  to  May,  1775. 

No  talk  of  Independence  until  after  that  second 
Petition  of  the  second  Congress?  Nobody  dream 
ing  of  separation  then? 

Had  not  the  Boston  Gazette  been  advocating 
separation  for  several  years?  Had  not  Samuel 
Adams  been  talking  it  all  over  the  town? 

On  October  11,  1773,  this  bold  democrat  dis 
cussed  in  the  Gazette  the  plan  of  "  An  Independent 
State,"  an  "  American  Commonwealth,"  as  a  sug 
gestion  that  had  often  been  made.  He  did  not  even 
claim  that  he  was  the  originator  of  the  idea.  He 
spoke  of  it  as  common  property,  something  which 
had  been  often  mentioned  and  frequently  discussed. 

The  Rev.  John  Wesley  declared  that  so  far 
back  as  1737  the  leading  people  of  the  colonies  were 
crying  out  for  Independence;  and  in  another  Eng 
lish  pamphlet  the  statement  was  made  that  the  au 
thor  had  been  personally  acquainted  with  the  col 
onies  for  forty  years,  and  Independence  had  been 
the  talk  all  the  time.  When  the  mother  country 
was  toasted,  as  patriots  lifted  glasses  to  drink,  the 
hearty  sentiment  was,  "Damn  the  old  bitch!" 

Yet  Benjamin  Franklin  sat  down  before  Lord 
Chatham,  looked  that  eagle-beaked  Englishman  in 
the  eye,  and  told  him  that  nobody  in  America,  drunk 

131 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

or  sober,  had  ever  hinted  at  such  a  thing  as  Inde 
pendence! 


On  the  night  of  the  5th  of  June,  some  young 
men,  entering  the  Old  Magazine  to  seize  arms,  were 
wounded  by  a  spring-gun  planted  there.  The  rage 
which  this  incident  excited  filled  the  streets  with  a 
crowd  which  was  loud  in  its  threats  and  curses. 
Dunmore  fled  in  the  night  to  a  British  man-of-war 
at  Yorktown.  That  was  the  last  of  the  governor 
at  Williamsburg.  Henceforth  between  him  and 
the  people  of  Virginia  there  was  to  be  war. 

The  Assembly  adjourned,  after  having  called  a 
meeting  of  the  Convention  for  July. 

Standing  on  the  porch  of  the  Old  Capitol,  Rich 
ard  Henry  Lee  wrote  on  one  of  the  pillars: 

When  shall  we  three  meet  again  ? 
In  thunder,  lightning,  and  in  rain  ? 
When  the  hurly-burly's  done, 
When  the  battle's  lost  and  won. 


132 


CHAPTER    X 

AFFAIRS   IN   GEORGIA 

GEORGIA  was  the  weakest  of  all  the  colonies, 
and  had  less  to  complain  of;  for  she  had  been  the 
object  of  royal  bounty  to  the  amount  of  nearly  a 
million  dollars. 

Her  interior  settlements  were  scattering,  and 
there  were  several  tribes  of  Indians  which  still  con 
tinued  to  make  strenuous  objection,  with  rifle  and 
tomahawk,  to  the  manner  in  which  the  whites 
robbed  them  of  their  lands. 

Indian  wars  were  constant  and  bloody — a  fact 
which  Georgians  had  to  consider  before  they  rushed 
into  trouble  with  Great  Britain,  for  there  were  only 
about  twenty-five  thousand  white  people  in  Georgia. 
Besides,  the  king  was  represented  in  this  little  col 
ony  by  a  man  of  tact,  force  of  character,  and 
courage.  Governor  Wright  wielded  a  powerful  in 
fluence;  and  in  Savannah,  where  he  lived,  the  Tory 
element  naturally  had  its  strength. 

Nevertheless,  he  found  it  to  be  the  hardest  kind 
of  work  to  keep  down  rebellion;  and  in  1775  there 
was  intercepted  at  Charleston  a  letter  in  which 
Governor  Wright  called  upon  General  Gage  to  send 
troops  to  Georgia. 

133 


AFFAIRS    IN    GEORGIA 

The  Stamp  Act  agitation  was  felt  in  Georgia  as 
in  the  other  colonies.  James  Habersham  took  the 
same  position  here  as  Rutledge  occupied  in  South 
Carolina  and  Henry  in  Virginia.  "  Sons  of  Liberty  " 
organized  to  resist  the  sale  of  the  stamps.  A  mes 
senger  from  Georgia  was  present  at  the  Congress 
of  1765.  Formal  delegates  were  to  have  been 
chosen  by  the  Georgia  Assembly,  and  it  required  all 
of  Governor  Wright's  persuasion  to  prevent  it. 

The  people  rose  in  arms  to  seize  the  stamps,  and 
the  governor  had  to  send  them  to  Fort  George,  on 
the  Cockspur  Island,  where  the  papers  were  kept 
under  strong  guard.  None  of  the  stamps  could  be 
sold  in  Georgia,  excepting  a  few  which  were  used 
by  some  ships  in  the  port  of  Savannah  which  feared 
to  sail  without  them. 

The  non-importation  resolutions  of  Massachu 
setts  and  Virginia  were  adopted  in  Georgia;  and 
Governor  Wright  officially  reported  to  the  home 
government  that  the  Stamp  Act  could  not  be  en 
forced. 

When  the  port  of  Boston  was  closed,  the  people 
in  all  parts  of  the  colony  passed  resolutions  con 
demning  the  mother  country  and  pledging  Georgia 
to  support  Massachusetts.  A  committee  was  named 
to  correspond  with  the  committees  of  the  other  col 
onies  and  to  collect  contributions  to  aid  the  poor  of 
Boston. 

Five  hundred  and  seventy-nine  barrels  of  rice, 
134 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

together  with  six  hundred  dollars  in  money,  were 
shipped  to  Boston  to  relieve  the  suffering  there. 

Fleeing  from  religious  persecution  in  New  Eng 
land,  a  colony  of  Quakers  had  found  homes  and 
warm  welcome  in  Georgia,  and  had  named  their 
new  settlement  Wrightsborough.  Joseph  Maddox 
and  Thomas  Watson  were  the  leaders  of  this  band 
of  refugees,  and  they  built  a  thriving  town  on  their 
40,000-acre  grant  of  land. 

It  was  in  this  Quaker  village  that  one  of  the  first 
revolutionary  conventions  of  the  Southern  people 
was  held.  Their  resolution  to  support  the  Boston 
patriots  in  the  position  they  had  taken  was  reduced 
to  writing  and  signed  by  men  whose  descendants 
live  in,  and  around,  the  good  old  borough  to-day — 
the  smoke  of  whose  chimneys  the  writer  sees  from 
his  home  any  fair  day  of  the  year. 

The  patriots  called  a  Provincial  Congress,  and 
war  seemed  imminent.  A  British  cruiser  was  sta 
tioned  in  the  Savannah  River,  and  troops  were  or 
dered  up  from  St.  Augustine.  This  was  December, 
1774.  In  January,  1775,  the  Provincial  Congress, 
a  purely  revolutionary  body,  met  in  Savannah,  or 
ganized,  and  elected  delegates  to  the  Philadelphia 
Congress;  but  the  failure  of  the  regular  assembly 
to  cooperate  with  this  voluntary  body  paralyzed 
to  a  great  extent  the  progress  of  the  revolutionary 
Congress.  It  was  at  this  moment,  when  Georgia 
was  finding  it  so  difficult  to  overcome  the  Tories, 

135 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

who  had  a  most  resourceful  leader  in  Wright,  that 
the  Puritan  element  made  itself  felt.  In  St.  John's 
Parish,  the  Midway  District,  lived  descendants  of 
sturdy  Protestants  who  had  fled  from  religious  and 
political  bigotry  in  Germany,  and  upon  their  altars 
leaped  the  fires  of  open  rebellion  in  Georgia.  They 
would  wait  no  longer  upon  the  other  parishes;  they 
chose  Dr.  Lyman  Hall  their  representative,  and 
sent  him  on  to  the  Congress  in  Philadelphia.  This 
was  March,  1775. 

In  May,  1775,  the  patriot  party,  led  by  the  best 
men  of  Savannah,  broke  into  the  magazine  and 
seized  about  six  hundred  pounds  of  powder — and 
tradition  says  that  some  of  it  was  burned  at  Bunker 
Hill.  In  June,  1775,  a  Committee  of  Safety  was  ap 
pointed.  Under  William  Ewing,  as  president,  it  en 
tered  upon  its  duties.  In  July,  1775,  the  Provincial 
Congress  of  Georgia  commissioned  a  schooner, 
which  pursued  and  overhauled  a  British  ship,  and, 
aided  by  a  force  of  South  Carolinians,  boarded  her 
and  captured  thirteen  thousand  pounds  of  gunpow 
der — five  thousand  pounds  of  which  was  sent  to 
Philadelphia  for  the  use  of  the  Continental  Army. 

On  July  4,  1775,  a  revolutionary  Congress,  in 
which  every  parish  in  Georgia  was  represented, 
convened  at  Savannah.  This  convention  squarely 
endorsed  everything  that  had  been  done  by  the 
Philadelphia  Congress,  and  adopted  a  Declaration 
of  Principles  which  began  with  the  words,  "  Re- 

136 


AFFAIRS    IN    GEORGIA 

solved,  That  we  were  born  free,  have  all  the  feel 
ings  of  men,  and  are  entitled  to  all  the  natural 
rights  of  mankind." 

This  revolutionary  body  then  organized  an  As 
sociation,  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  step  with  the 
other  colonies,  to  oppose  the  execution  of  oppres 
sive  Acts  of  Parliament,  and  provide  a  general  com 
mittee  which  should,  in  effect,  rule  the  colony. 

The  Committee  of  Safety  reorganized  the  mi 
litia,  took  possession  of  the  Custom-House,  relieved 
another  British  vessel  of  its  cargo  of  gunpowder, 
and  refused  a  vessel  from  Senegal  permission  to 
land  a  cargo  of  negroes. 

The  arrival  at  Tybee,  January  12,  1776,  of  two 
British  men-of-war  and  a  transport,  with  a  detach 
ment  of  troops,  served  but  to  aggravate  matters. 

Major  Joseph  Habersham  took  a  squad  of  pa 
triots,  marched  to  the  house  of  the  governor,  and, 
placing  his  hand  upon  his  shoulder,  said,  "  Sir 
James,  you  are  my  prisoner! " 

The  Provisional  Congress  adopted  a  provisional 
Constitution,  and  put  Archibald  Bulloch — the  first 
Chief  Magistrate  of  Independent  Georgia — into  the 
vacant  place  of  royal  appointee  Wright. 

Among  the  men  of  1776  there  was  not  one  who 
surpassed  in  the  sterling  qualities  of  manhood  this 
honest,  capable,  fearless,  patriotic  Georgian.  The 
entire  people  mourned  his  loss  when  he  died  in  the 
midst  of  his  noble  labors  in  1777,  it  not  being  his  to 

137 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

see  the  triumph  of  the  cause.  From  this  great 
Georgian  is  descended,  on  the  maternal  side,  Presi 
dent  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Lachlan  Mclntosh  was  put  in  command  of  the 
Continental  Battalion,  and  on  February  16,  1776, 
we  find  him  in  communication  with  Washington. 

Colonel  Mclntosh  informs  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  that  Georgia's  position  is  weak;  that  there 
are  not  more  than  three  thousand  men  in  the  colony, 
excepting  those  on  the  seacoast;  and  that  these  are 
scattered  over  a  very  wide  area.  The  rich  people 
are  Tories,  as  a  rule;  hence,  the  whites  are  divided. 
There  are  some  fifteen  hundred  negroes,  who  must 
be  kept  down;  and  there  are  three  great  Indian  na 
tions,  who  may  break  into  hostilities  at  any  time- 
Creeks,  Choctaws,  and  Cherokees.  These  Indians 
can  muster  ten  thousand  warriors;  and  Mclntosh 
gives  them  the  credit  for  being  "  brave  and  in 
trepid." 

In  April,  1776,  Colonel  Mclntosh  reports  to 
Washington  the  organization  of  the  Battalion.  One 
of  his  difficulties  in  getting  the  people  to  enlist  is 
that  they  do  not  like  to  submit  to  the  restraints  of 
military  discipline.  He  also  sends  Washington  a 
copy  of  the  provisional  Constitution  which  the 
Georgia  Congress  had  declared  should  be  in  force 
until  a  permanent  Constitution  of  government 
could  be  framed.  This  provisional  Constitution  set 
up  a  complete  government,  executive,  legislative, 

138 


AFFAIRS    IN    GEORGIA 

and  judicial,  naming  the  various  officers  and  fixing 
the  salaries. 

Governor  Wright  fled  to  England,  and  did  not 
return  until  July,  1779,  when  he  again  set  up  a  brief, 
rickety  royal  government. 


139 


CHAPTER    XI 

PATRICK   HENRY   IN   COMMAND 

UPON  the  retreat  of  Dunmore,  the  government 
of  Virginia  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee 
of  Safety.  Patrick  Henry  was  made  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  military  forces. 

Dunmore,  at  Norfolk,  proclaimed  martial  law, 
appealed  to  the  slaves  to  join  him — offering  them 
freedom — and  he  ravaged  the  shores  of  Chesapeake 
Bay.  British  and  negroes  overrun  Hampton,  burn 
ing,  destroying,  perpetrating  every  outrage. 

The  Committee  of  Safety  sent  Colonel  Wood- 
ford,  with  a  small  body  of  Virginia  troops,  toward 
Norfolk  in  December,  1775.  When  the  Americans 
reached  Great  Bridge,  Captain  Fordyce,  at  the  head 
of  about  sixty  British  grenadiers,  attacked  the 
breastworks  which  the  Virginians  had  hastily 
thrown  up.  A  hot  fire  met  the  British,  and  their 
commander  fell.  He  rose,  brushing  his  knees  as 
though  he  had  merely  stumbled,  and  he  cheered  his 
men  onward  until  he  was  within  twenty  paces  of 
the  breastworks.  There  he  fell  dead.  His  grena 
diers  broke,  and  fled  to  the  British  fort.  (Decem 
ber  9,  1775.)1 

1  John  Marshall,  afterward  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  was  a 
lieutenant  of  Woodford's  company  in  this  action. 

140 


PATRICK   HENRY   IN   COMMAND 

Dunmore  left  Norfolk,  and  took  refuge  in  the 
English  ships. 

If  any  spur  was  needed  to  make  the  restless 
steed  of  revolution  spring  forward  at  mad  gallop, 
the  British  now  struck  it  home. 

Falmouth  was  wantonly  destroyed  at  the  North; 
and  at  the  South  the  chief  city  of  Virginia  was  in 
humanly  bombarded  and  burned! 

As  provocations  to  furious  wrath  and  desperate 
desire  for  revenge,  the  Boston  Massacre  and  Bunker 
Hill  were  as  nothing  as  compared  to  Falmouth  and 
Norfolk.  Bunker  Hill  was  manly  fighting,  in  the 
open,  against  men  entrenched  and  ready;  the  other 
was  brutal  and  cowardly  destruction  for  the  sake 
of  destruction — was  the  murder,  in  reckless,  inso 
lent  barbarity,  of  unarmed  men,  helpless  women 
and  children. 

British  ships  destroyed  Falmouth  on  October 
17,  1775;  British  guns  and  torches  destroyed  Nor 
folk  January  1,  1776.  On  January  10,  1776,  the 
Pennsylvania  Journal  announced: 

"  This  day  was  published,  and  is  now  selling  by 
Robert  Bell,  price  two  shillings,  '  Common  Sense/ 
addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of  North  America." 

Published  and  now  selling! 

A  timelier  pamphlet  never  hit  the  market.  It 
came  as  the  news  of  Norfolk  came.  The  glare  of 
burning  homes  was  on  its  pages  as  the  people 
read;  the  cries  of  women  and  children,  fleeing  for 

141 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

their  lives  as  British  guns  poured  cannon-balls  into 
the  streets,  were  in  the  ears  of  the  American  pa 
triot  as  he  heard  the  ringing  voice  of  Thomas  Paine 
calling  him  to  freedom! 

Like  torch  to  dry  stubble,  like  spark  to  powder, 
the  pamphlet  set  the  American  world  on  fire.  It 
"  burst  from  the  press  with  an  effect  which  has 
rarely  been  produced  by  types  and  paper  in  any 
age  or  country."  "  The  great  American  cause 
owed  as  much  to  the  pen  of  Paine  as  to  the  sword 
of  Washington." 

Revolutionary  governments  were  already  in  con 
trol  of  most  of  the  colonies.  The  Carolinas,  Vir 
ginia,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
Maryland,  Georgia,  were  practically  independent, 
having  drifted  steadily  in  that  direction  ever  since 
the  formation  of  Committees  of  Correspondence. 

Thomas  Nelson,  said  to  be  the  richest  man  in 
Virginia,  moved  the  Virginia  Convention  (May  15, 
1776)  to  instruct  her  delegates  in  Congress  to  pro 
pose  a  declaration  of  independence,  declaring  the 
United  Colonies  free  and  independent  States.  The 
resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted,  the  next 
day  the  troops  at  Williamsburg  received  them  with 
shouts  and  with  boom  of  cannon.  The  American 
flag  was  run  up  on  the  Capitol,  and  at  night  Will 
iamsburg  was  illuminated. 

George  Mason  then  prepared  his  celebrated 
Bill  of  Rights  and  the  Virginia  Constitution  of  1776 

142 


PATRICK   HENRY   IN   COMMAND 

—the  first  written  Constitution,  completely  organ 
izing  a  government,  which  was  ever  adopted  by  a 
free  people. 

Kichard  Henry  Lee  presented  in  Congress  the 
resolutions  which  Virginia  had  instructed  her  dele 
gates  to  present,  and  supported  them  with  his  cus 
tomary  eloquence  and  zeal.  Great  differences  of 
opinion  still  existed  among  the  delegates,  all  being 
patriots,  but  some  being  hot  while  others  were  only 
warm,  and  a  few  were  somewhat  cold. 

John  Adams  was  the  tower  of  strength  to  the 
resolutions,  "  the  colossus  of  that  debate." 

Pennsylvania  was  not  ready,  South  Carolina 
was  not  ready,  others  wanted  more  time — fearing 
to  burn  the  bridge. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  American  patriots 
won  their  first  decisive  victory  over  Great  Britain. 
British  ships,  under  Sir  Peter  Parker,1  attacked 
Fort  Sullivan,  in  South  Carolina,  and  were  thor 
oughly  beaten  by  raw  troops  screened  behind  pal 
metto-logs. 

England's  strong  arm  was  her  navy;  at  Charles 
ton  she  had  some  of  her  best  ships,  commanded  by 
some  of  her  best  officers. 

A  plain  citizen,  whose  chief  fitness  to  defend  a 
position  was  his  courage,  undertook  to  hold  a  fort 

1  Not  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  as  Professor  Channing,  of  Harvard,  states  in 
that  Student's  History. 

143 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

which  General  Charles  Lee  and  other  experts  said 
he  could  not  hold.  "  Throw  up  ramparts  to  protect 
your  rear!  "  urges  Lee.  "  The  enemy  will  never  get 
in  my  rear!"  answered  Moultrie,  in  effect,  and  he 
lazily  neglected  Lee's  counsel. 

"  Sir,  when  those  ships  come  alongside  your  fort 
they  will  knock  it  down  in  half  an  hour!"  This 
cheerful  prediction  was  volunteered  by  another  mil 
itary  expert. 

Then  said  Colonel  Moultrie:  "We  will  lay  be 
hind  the  ruins,  and  prevent  their  men  from  land 
ing!" 

So  he  makes  himself  at  ease  in  that  log  pen  of 
his,  and  when  the  British  ships  come  alongside  he 
shoots  them  all  to  pieces.  On  one  of  these  war-ves 
sels  he  kills  and  wounds  more  than  a  hundred  men. 
He  mortally  wounds  Lord  William  Campbell, 
shoots  arms  off  Captains  Scott  and  Morris,  puts  two 
bullets  into  Sir  Peter  Parker — making  it  a  woful 
day  generally  for  the  English  aristocracy.  His  flag 
staff  is  shot  away,  and  the  colors  fall  outside  the 
log  pen.  Sergeant  Jasper  leaps  out  of  the  fort, 
tears  the  flag  from  the  staff,  and,  amid  a  hail 
of  shot,  fixes  it  to  a  sponge  staff,  plants  it  on 
the  works,  and  shouts  his  three  cheers  of  de 
fiance! 

Colonel  Moultrie's  ammunition  runs  low;  he  can 
only  occasionally  fire  his  guns;  but  he  never  once 
thinks  of  giving  up. 

144 


PATRICK   HENRY   IN   COMMAND 

Sergeant  McDaniel,  cruelly  mangled  by  a  can 
non-ball,  shouts  with  his  dying  breath:  "  Fight  on, 
boys!  Don't  let  liberty  die  with  me  to-day !" 

By  and  by,  watchful  Edward  Rutledge  sends 
more  powder,  and  the  peril  passes.  British  ships 
try  to  slip  around  to  that  undefended  rear  which 
had  worried  Lee. 

They  can  not  make  it.  In  the  shallow  water  they 
stick  in  the  mud,  jamming  one  another — at  the  spot 
where  Fort  Sumter  now  stands. 

Midnight  comes,  and  the  British  go.  Their  ships 
glide  away,  leaving  their  helpless  Acteon  still  stuck 
in  the  mud.  Her  captain  sets  her  on  fire,  and 
leaves  her  to  perish — but  not  before  some  daring 
Americans  have  boarded  her  and  emptied  three  of 
her  guns  upon  her  retreating  crew. 

The  first  real  victory  of  the  war  of  American 
Independence! 


145 


CHAPTER    XII 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

IT  is  ancient  history  now — the  Revolutionary 
War;  and  very  indifferent  is  the  average  citizen  to 
its  heroes  and  its  triumphs.  One  reason  for  this  is 
that  American  historians,  endeavoring  to  be  digni 
fied,  leaned  a  little  too  far,  and  became  dull. 

One  author  tried  to  imitate  Gibbon,  another 
Macaulay,  another  Grote,  another  Green;  and  a 
sorry  business  they  have  made  of  it.  Besides,  the 
average  book,  written  by  the  man  of  New  England, 
has  got  too  much  New  England  in  it.  The  reader 
feels,  instinctively,  that  the  American  Revolution 
was  not  so  exclusively  a  tempest  in  New  England's 
tea-pot.  Entirely  too  much  has  been  made  of 
trivial  New  England  incidents  and  of  third-rate 
New  England  individuals.  Too  many  New  England 
mole-hills  have  been  magnified  into  historical  moun 
tains.  Even  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  though  he  made 
a  manful  attempt,  could  not  cut  himself  loose  from 
the  swollen  body  of  dead  tradition. 

As  to  Woodrow  Wilson's  book — well,  we  will 

change  the  subject. 

•  •••••• 

The  Radicals  of  Massachusetts  were  not  alto 
gether  at  ease  in  Zion  when  they  realized  how  far 

146 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

they  had  gone.  Their  Tea-Party  was  not  universally 
approved.  Samuel  Adams  enjoyed  the  situation; 
but  such  patriots  as  Franklin  advised  that  the  tea 
should  be  paid  for.  Then  again,  it  was  vehemently 
contended  that  at  Lexington  the  patriots  had  fired 
first,  and  in  violation  of  the  orders  of  their  own 
officers. 

Her  militia  beaten  at  Bunker  Hill,  her  chief  city 
in  British  hands,  her  suffering  people  fed  upon  the 
bounty  of  sympathizing  friends,  Massachusetts  oc 
cupied  the  perilous  position.  For  her  salvation  it 
was  necessary,  absolutely  and  immediately  neces 
sary,  that  the  other  colonies  should  rally  to  her 
support. 

The  two  Adamses,  John  and  Sam,  realized  per 
fectly  the  necessity  for  committing  the  South,  not 
to  the  cause  generally — for  she  was  already  com 
mitted  to  that — but  to  the  trial  of  arms  which 
Massachusetts  had  precipitated.  By  popular  de 
monstrations,  by  speeches  and  resolutions,  the 
Southern  people  were  already  committed,  but  noth 
ing  would  clinch  the  combination  between  North 
and  South  like  the  appointment  of  the  strongest 
man  in  the  South  to  the  chief  command  of  the 
army. 

Virginia  was  the  strong  colony  of  the  South, 
and  Washington  was  the  strong  man  of  Virginia; 
to  shrewd  Samuel  Adams  here  was  a  plain  case. 
The  matchless  Southern  cavalier,  who  had  come  to 

147 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Congress  in  his  uniform,  must  mount  his  war-horse 
and  ride  at  the  head  of  the  American  army! 

The  character  of  George  Washington  is  by  com 
mon  consent  regarded  as  one  of  the  grandest  known 
to  history.  In  spite  of  Thomas  Carlyle's  threat  to 
"  take  down  George  a  peg  or  two,"  he  remains  where 
the  eulogy  of  Light-Horse  Harry  Lee  put  him. 

But  the  praise  that  is  heaped  upon  him  is  some 
times  too  indiscriminate.  There  has  been  too  much 
effort  to  remove  him  from  the  companionship  of 
men,  and  to  place  him  among  the  deities — as  the 
ancients  used  to  do. 

That  such  a  man  as  Parson  Weems  should  be 
gin  this  sort  of  thing,  is  no  matter  of  surprise;  but 
that  such  an  author  as  John  Fiske  should  fall  into 
it,  excites  amazement. 

The  present  writer,  speaking  for  himself  only, 
dares  to  confess  that  he  loves  Washington  because 
he  was  just  a  man. 

Show  us  the  Washington  who  never  makes  a 
mistake,  never  commits  a  sin,  never  loses  his  tem 
per,  never  does  anything  small  or  mean,  never  is  at 
fault,  is  always  right,  always  master  of  the  situa 
tion,  always  sublimely  above  human  weakness — a 
Washington  who  was  supremely  great  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave — and  we  frankly  admit  that  we 
take  no  interest  in  him,  simply  because  we  have  no 
faith  in  him. 

148 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

But  show  us  a  Washington  who  was  human,  had 
his  fits  of  passion,  made  his  mistakes,  committed 
sin,  knew  what  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  were,  loved  to 
dance  all  night,  admired  a  fine  figure  of  a  woman, 
hated  a  poacher  to  the  extent  of  beating  the 
stealthy  wretch  and  breaking  his  gun,  cursed  like 
a  sailor  wrhen  in  a  passion,  knew  how  to  pick  out  the 
best  horse,  or  the  best  piece  of  land,  had  a  slave 
whipped  if  he  didn't  do  his  task,  had  a  private  sol 
dier  flogged  to  the  limit  of  the  law  if  he  broke  the 
rules,  forced  the  new  husband  of  a  dead  plasterer's 
widow  to  refund  an  overcharge  made  by  the -de 
ceased  plasterer  for  work  at  Mount  Vernon,  com 
pelled  General  Stone  to  take  back  a  faulty  coin 
paid  for  ferriage  at  the  Washington  ferry  and  to 
pay  honest  money — show  us  a  Washington  like  that, 
and  we  begin  to  understand  him.  Show  us  a  man 
who,  in  spite  of  such  flaws  and  blemishes  as  these, 
develops  the  virtues  of  his  nature  until  such  blem 
ishes  shall  become  mere  sun-spots,  and  we  will  join 
you  in  paying  heartfelt  adoration  to  the  sun. 

There  had  been  no  marvelous  deeds  connected 
with  Washington's  youth.  He  was  not  the  bright 
est  boy  at  school.  Nothing  he  did  caused  the  elders 
to  distill  wisdom  into  predictions.  He  was  just  a 
strong,  manly,  intelligent  boy  —  quicker  on  the 
playground  than  in  his  books.  His  family  was  as 
good  as  the  best;  but  not  wealthy.  His  elder 
brothers,  of  the  half  blood,  were  intimately  asso- 

149 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

elated  with  some  Englishmen  whose  connections 
were  very  high;  but  at  one  time  the  mother  of 
George  had  thought  of  putting  him  on  a  British 
ship  to  become  a  common  sailor. 

He  became  a  land  surveyor;  and  in  that  capacity 
served  Lord  Fairfax,  who  had  large  tracts  of  wild 
land,  the  boundaries  of  which  needed  to  be  fixed 
and  marked.  Handsomely  paid  for  this  hard  and 
dangerous  work  (for  the  Indians  still  roamed  the 
woods),  he  saved  his  money  and  bought  choice  bits 
of  virgin  soil  for  himself.  His  explorations  and 
surveys  were  not  more  perilous  than  those  which 
Peter  Jefferson  had  been  making;  and  so  far  as  we 
know,  not  better.  He  did  his  work  faithfully,  fear 
lessly,  competently,  and  got  well  paid  for  it:  that 
is  all.  If  ever  he  had  to  eat  his  pack-mule  while 
out  in  the  wilderness,  as  Peter  Jefferson  is  said 
to  have  been  obliged  to  do,  tradition  has  lost  the 
indignant  mule. 

Prof.  John  Fiske  falls  into  a  flutter  of  won 
der  and  admiration  because  Governor  Dinwiddie 
of  Virginia  selected  so  young  a  man  as  Wash 
ington  to  carry  a  message  into  the  Ohio  woods. 
Eeally  there  was  no  cause  for  the  professor's 
excitement.  The  most  casual  inquiry  into  the 
facts  clears  up  the  mystery.  The  Ohio  Land  Com 
pany  was  reaching  out  for  half  a  million  acres 
which  lay  in  the  fertile  valleys  of  the  West;  the 
two  elder  brothers  of  Washington  were  directors 

150 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

in  the  company;  Governor  Dinwiddie  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  company;  and  Christopher  Gist  was  the 
surveyor  of  the  company.  Therefore,  when  we  see 
Christopher  Gist  and  George  Washington  thread 
their  way  through  the  woods  to  warn  the  French 
off  the  land  which  the  company  claims,  it  looks  far 
from  mysterious.  Professor  Fiske's  marvel  ceases 
to  startle. 

The  Ohio  Company  had  its  powerful  London 
members,  as  well  as  its  powerful  Virginia  members. 
Secure  in  the  support  of  the  imperial  government, 
as  well  as  in  that  of  the  colonial  government,  the 
corporation  did  not  even  wait  for  the  issuance  of 
the  formal  grant  to  the  land. 

Christopher  Gist  and  other  hardy  rovers  were 
immediately  sent  to  spy  out  the  country,  to  report 
on  its  resources,  and  to  blaze  the  way  for  squatters. 
Indian  traders  hurried  to  the  Ohio  with  the  cus 
tomary  stock  of  mean  whisky,  red  blankets,  blue 
beads,  striped  calico,  gaudy  ribbons,  and  other 
finery  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  children  of  the 
forest. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  French,  who  claimed  these 
lands  for  themselves,  the  English  traders  were 
mere  trespassers  who  must  be  put  out,  and  they 
were  put  out  accordingly.  Thereupon  the  Ohio 
Company  put  its  influence  to  work;  and  the  gov 
ernments,  imperial  and  colonial,  began  to  take  a 
hand  in  the  dispute — just  as  Cecil  Rhodes,  Barney 

151 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Barnato,  and  Joseph  Beit  managed  to  have  it 
do  in  the  matter  of  the  South  African  gold 
mines. 

That  the  Washington  brothers,  Dinwiddie,  Gist 
and  Company  were  honest  in  believing  the  terri 
tory  belonged  to  Great  Britain  is  not  to  be  doubted. 
In  its  wild  state  the  soil  was  not  doing  anybody 
any  good.  It  was  a  pity  that  such  fine  land  should 
serve  for  nothing  better  than  Indian  hunting- 
grounds.  It  joined  Virginia,  it  was  in  the  line  of 
Virginia  expansion — what  more  natural  than  that 
Virginia  should  claim  it,  and  should  begin  to 
throw  around  it  the  tentacles  of  benevolent 
assimilation? 

Washington  was  as  honest  in  his  purpose  as 
were  Miles  Standish,  John  Smith,  Daniel  Boone, 
James  Robertson,  or  John  Sevier.  He  wanted  the 
land,  he  fought  for  the  land,  he  risked  his  life  and 
gave  days  of  toil  to  get  the  land — and  he  got  it. 
When  the  smoke  of  battle  lifted,  the  hero  of  Mount 
Vernon  owned  seventy  thousand  acres  of  the  finest 
forest  land  in  the  world;  part  of  which  was  his 
own  reward  as  a  soldier,  and  part  of  which  he  had 
bought  on  highly  satisfactory  terms  from  his 
brother  soldiers. 

During  the  terms  of  Botetourt  and  Dunmore, 
we  find  Washington  continually  pressing  the 
claims  of  the  Virginia  troops  to  the  land  for  which 
they  had  fought;  and  it  is  highly  probable  that, 

152 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

being  encumbered  as  he  was  by  this  matter,  he 
could  not  act  as  radically  against  the  two  govern 
ors  as  his  younger,  less  embarrassed  fellow  cit 
izens  could  do. 

In  this  there  was  absolutely  nothing  to  Wash 
ington's  discredit.  It  was  a  matter  of  great  im 
portance  to  him  and  to  his  comrades  in  arms  that 
they  should  receive  grants  to  the  lands  which  they 
had  so  manfully  won.  Yet  in  order  to  get  justice 
he  had  to  secure  favorable  consideration  from  the 
king's  officers,  the  governors.  It  would  seem  that 
this  explanation  would  account  for  the  fact  that 
Washington  was  not  at  first  recognized  in  Virginia 
as  a  leader  in  the  movement  of  armed  resistance 
to  Great  Britain. 

He  did  not  for  one  instant  give  countenance  to 
the  aggressions  of  the  mother  country;  but  he  cer 
tainly  did  not  do  more  than  keep  in  touch  with  the 
earlier  progress  of  the  revolt. 

When  he  married  the  widow  Custis,  he  not  only 
added  largely  to  his  estate  in  lands  and  chattels, 
but  he  secured  control  of  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  cash. 

This  was  an  inestimable  advantage.  For  one 
thing,  it  made  it  possible  for  him  to  advance  sixty- 
five  thousand  dollars  to  the  cause  during  the  Rev 
olutionary  War,  and  to  serve  it  without  pay  for 
eight  arduous  years. 

But  up  to  the  time  Washington  was  appointed 
153 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF  JEFFERSON 

Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Colonial  forces  he 
had  not  gained  any  wonderful  triumphs  as  soldier 
or  civilian.  His  journey  into  the  Ohio  wilderness 
was  full  of  peril  and  hardships,  but  not  more  so 
than  hundreds  of  similar  journeys  made  by  white 
men  and  red  men  in  the  frontier  life  of  that  day.  It 
bore  no  comparison  to  what  Christopher  Gist  had 
done  in  his  memorable  solitary  trip  all  through  the 
Ohio  country,  into  the  dark  and  bloody  ground 
which  became  Kentucky.  It  wras  no  more  than 
was  frequently  done  by  such  men  as  Lewis,  Clarke, 
Boone,  Kenyon,  and  hundreds  of  others. 

The  ambushing  of  Jumonville  was  not  a  partic 
ularly  glorious  exploit;  and  the  surrender  at  Fort 
Necessity  carried  with  it  the  signing  of  a  paper 
which  afterward  caused  hot  talk  in  Virginia.  The 
capitulation  was  in  the  French  language,  and 
contained  a  confession  that  Jumonville  had  been 
"  assassinated."  Washington  explained  that  this 
French  sentence  had  been  translated  to  him  dif 
ferently.  One  of  the  Virginia  officers  had,  however, 
refused  to  sign  because  of  this  confession  to  assas 
sination. 

Washington  had  afterward  served  with  great 
distinction  under  Braddock;1  and  in  beating  back 
the  Indians  from  the  Virginia  frontier.  He  had 
won  no  signal  battle  against  them;  but  he  had 

1  One  of  the  soldiers  who  fought  on  this  famous  field  was  the  grand 
father  of  Alexander  H.  Stevens,  Vice-president  of  the  Confederacy. 

154 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

given  proof  of  possessing  all  the  qualities  of  the 
soldier.  When  the  British  came  again  to  renew  the 
Braddock  campaign,  they  had  been  about  to  fail 
the  second  time,  when  he  pushed  forward  and  took 
Fort  Duquesne. 

Washington  had  presented  George  Mason's 
resolutions  to  boycott  English  goods;  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  he  voted  for  Patrick  Henry's  reso 
lutions  against  the  Stamp  Act.  He  was  not  taken 
into  the  meetings  of  the  younger,  bolder  leaders 
of  the  burgesses;  and  was  not  a  member  of  their 
Kevolutionary  Committee. 

When  Dunmore  removed  the  powder,  Wash 
ington  had  declined  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  militia  of  Albemarle. 

He  continued,  till  a  late  day,  to  dine  with  the 
governor;  and  to  dance  with  the  Countess  of 
Dunmore. 

In  Virginia,  it  was  left  to  Henry,  who  had  been 
first  with  the  word,  to  be  also  first  with  the  blow. 

But  Washington's  was  a  figure  of  towering 
prominence. 

In  mere  physical  endowments  he  commanded 
attention,  respect,  admiration.  He  was  a  gentle 
man  —  athlete,  tall,  strong,  well-made,  active, 
handsome,  dignified,  majestic.  No  one  excelled 
him  in  strength  and  endurance.  He  could  throw 
a  silver  dollar  across  the  Rappahannock  below 
Fredericksburg;  make  his  way  up  the  wall  rock 

155 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

under  the  Natural  Bridge;  ride  after  the  fox  till 
horses,  dogs,  and  fox  were  tired  out.  A  finer  horse 
man  never  put  foot  to  stirrup. 

His  eye  was  steady  and  his  face  grave;  nobody 
could  clap  him  on  the  back  and  cry,  "  Hello, 
George! "  And  he  could  look  as  wise  as  he  really 
was;  and  hold  his  tongue — a  precious  gift,  even  to 
the  really  wise.  Another  material  advantage  was 
his  vast  estates  and  ready  money. 

Nobody  considered  him,  at  that  time,  the  best 
soldier  in  America;  he  was  certainly  not  thought 
to  be  the  wisest  civilian;  but  everybody  looked 
upon  George  Washington  as  a  solid  man,  a  safe- 
man,  a  true  man,  a  competent,  fearless,  patriotic, 
resolute,  broad-minded,  indispensable  man. 

Therefore,  when  the  motion  was  made  to  place 
him  at  the  head  of  the  army,  the  great  majority 
of  the  leaders,  as  well  as  the  people,  considered 
the  choice  of  a  good  one. 


156 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE     DECLARATION 

CONGRESS  is  at  last  ready  to  act.  It  is  high  time 
that  it  should.  The  lower  it  had  stooped,  the 
harder  King  George  had  kicked  it. 

In  the  midsummer  of  1775  it  had  sent  to  the 
king  another  humble  petition,  drawn  by  the 
humble  Dickinson,  and  carried  to  London  by  the 
Tory,  Richard  Penn.  King  George  had  refused  to 
look  either  at  the  loyal  Richard  or  his  humbl^ 
petition. 

Furthermore,  King  George  had  issued  his 
proclamation  declaring  the  colonies  in  rebellion 
and  no  longer  under  his  protection. 

Then  again  his  agents  ransacked  Europe  to  find 
rulers  who  were  willing  to  hire  soldiers  to  go  to 
America  to  put  down  this  rebellion  for  him.  In 
this  search  the  Hessians  were  found;  and  their 
hereditary  rulers  sent  the  poor  fellows  over  here 
by  the  ship-load  to  kill  and  be  killed  in  a  cause 
they  did  not  even  understand.  Likewise,  emissa 
ries  from  Canada  were  set  to  work  to  rouse  the 
Indians;  and  mean  whisky,  bright-colored  fabrics, 
powder  and  lead,  guns  and  hatchets  became  un- 

157 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

usually  plentiful  and  accessible  to  the  Red  Man  of 
the  North,  the  South,  and  the  West. 

Already  Cornelius  Harnet  had  led  the  way  to 
Independence  in  North  Carolina.  The  Mecklen 
burg  Resolutions  were  in  effect  the  first  of  Amer 
ican  declarations  of  Independence.  Rhode  Island 
soon  followed.  Then  came  the  town  meetings  of 
Massachusetts.  Then  Virginia,  May  6th,  closely 
followed,  having  no  idea  that  any  other  colony  had 
already  shaken  off  the  burden  of  allegiance  to  Great 
Britain.1 

Kicked  by  the  king,  and  pushed  by  the  colonies, 
Congress  took  the  bit  in  its  teeth,  and  made  the 
jump.  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  agreed  to  vote 
for  the  Declaration;  New  York  agreed  not  to  vote 
either  way;  and  the  cautious  Dickinson  and  Morris, 
of  Pennsylvania,  were  prevailed  upon  to  dodge. 

In  this  way  the  Declaration  was  passed  without 
a  dissenting  voice. 

1  The  fact  that  North  Carolina  had  given  the  first  tap  to  the  drum  in 
the  grand  march  of  Independence  was,  indeed,  long  disputed;  and  the 
name  of  Cornelius  Harnet  was  unknown  to  historians.  He  was  serving 
as  President  of  a  Revolutionary  government  in  October,  1775. 

If  Cornelius  Harnet,  or  the  Mecklenburg  Resolutions,  are  so  much  as 
mentioned  in  Woodrow  Wilson's  five- volume  History,  the  index  fails 
to  indicate  the  fact.  In  Henry  Cabot  Lodge's  sumptuous  two-volume 
Story  of  the  American  Revolution,  there  is  not  a  word  about  this  first  of 
all  the  public  acts  of  independence. 

And  of  course  the  Harvard  scribe,  Professor  Channing,  has  nothing 
to  say  about  so  trivial  an  incident. 

To  the  credit  of  the  fair-minded  Bancroft  be  it  said  that  he  renders  to 
the  old  North  State  the  honor  of  being  ' '  the  first  colony  to  expressly 
sanction  independence." 

158 


THE   DECLARATION 

The  resolution  of  Richard  Henry  Lee  was  passed 
on  July  2d;  the  Declaration,  as  drawn  by  Jefferson 
and  amended  by  Congress,  on  July  4th. 

Mr.  Jefferson  writhed  a  good  deal  under  the 
surgical  treatment  Congress  gave  his  flowing  para 
graphs;  but  at  last  the  agony  ended — the  final 
vote  being  hastened  by  the  flies  which  swarmed  in 
from  a  livery-stable  near  by,  and  which,  during  the 
sultry  afternoon,  became  intolerable  to  legs  en 
cased  in  silk  stockings. 

Of  the  Pennsylvania  delegation  only  Dr.  Frank 
lin,  John  Morton,  and  James  Wilson  voted  for  the 
Declaration  at  the  time  it  was  adopted.  On  the 
20th  of  July  the  State  named  other  delegates  in 
place  of  those  who  had  refused  to  vote;  and  these 
new  members  were  allowed  to  sign  when  they  ar 
rived,  just  as  though  they  had  voted  with  the 
others.  The  New  York  delegates  gave  in  their  ad 
hesion  on  the  15th  of  July.  As  late  as  November 
4th  a  delegate  from  New  Hampshire,  Dr.  Thornton, 
was  permitted  to  sign. 

Most  of  the  actual  signing  was  done  on  the  2d 
of  August,  after  the  resolution  had  been  enrolled 
on  parchment.  When  first  issued  it  was  signed  only 
by  John  Hancock,  President,  and  Charles  Thomp 
son,  Secretary. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  asked  by  his  colleagues  of 
the  committee  to  write  out  the  Declaration,  and  he 
did  so.  It  was  an  easy,  grateful  task.  He  had  been 

159 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

over  all  the  ground  many  a  time  before;  was  fa 
miliar  with  every  point  in  the  argument,  every  fact 
in  the  record,  every  count  in  the  indictment  against 
the  king.  It  was  only  necessary  that  he  should 
now  briefly  summarize,  tersely  present,  the  strong 
point  in  the  case.  He  was  not  expected  to  origi 
nate  facts  or  principles;  he  made  no  attempt  of  the 
kind;  and  his  paper  contained  nothing  of  fact  or 
principle  which  was  not  common  property  to  the 
well-informed  men  of  1776. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  rhetoric  in  the  first 
draft  of  the  Declaration,  and  Congress  cut  most  of 
it  out. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  likewise  written  a  strong 
paragraph  against  the  king,  charging  him  with  the 
responsibility  of  the  slave-trade.  Congress  was 
mindful  of  the  fact  that  Northern  colonies  were 
deep  in  the  slave-trade,  and  the  South  crowded  with 
slaves;  and  it  was  thought  best  to  strike  out  Jeffer 
son's  denunciation  of  the  king  on  that  subject.1 

But  after  all  the  changes,  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  as  finally  adopted,  was  Jefferson's  pa 
per.  Much  had  been  stricken  out;  almost  nothing 
had  been  put  in;  therefore,  it  was  natural  for  him 
to  claim  it  as  his  own,  and  to  demand  the  credit  for 

iHildreth,  the  historian,  remarks  that  it  was  too  much  to  expect 
Georgia  to  agree  to  that  clause.  Inasmuch  as  Rhode  Island,  "  tight 
little,  right  little  Rhody,"  had  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  slave-ships 
on  the  sea  at  that  time,  it  may  have  been  "  expecting  too  much  "  to  ask 
her  to  sign  it. 

160 


lift  1 1  I 


II 


ACE  «F  LIBERTY 


SHO&  WAR.E. 


THE  HOUSE  IX  PHILADELPHIA  IX  WHICH  JEFFERSON   WROTE 
THE   DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE. 


THE   DECLARATION 

it  be  given  him  on  his  monument.  That  his  hon 
ored  name  is  linked  forever  with  the  Magna  Charta 
of  American  liberty  is  just,  for  no  man  has  been 
earlier  in  getting  upon  the  field  where  the  strug 
gle  was  to  be  made,  no  man  had  advanced  more  rap 
idly  with  the  movement,  and  to  no  man  were  its 
principles  more  sacred,  or  its  call  to  service  a  more 
imperative  obligation. 

And  to  his  tact,  his  conciliatory  disposition,  his 
even-tempered  patience  and  persistence,  it  was 
largely  due  that  no  factious  divisions  among  the 
patriots  robbed  the  cause  of  its  strength. 

In  The  Story  of  the  American  Revolution  the 
learned  and  elegant  author,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge, 
states  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  re 
ceived  by  the  soldiers  with  "  content,  and  by  the 
people  cordially  and  heartily,  but  without  excite 
ment." 

Is  not  this  summary  a  little  cold? 

The  Declaration  marks  one  of  the  great  stages 
of  our  advancement  as  a  people;  it  is  a  mile-stone  on 
the  great  national  highway.  It  is  worth  knowing 
how  it  was  received.  If  it  was  taken  as  a  mere  mat 
ter  of  course,  as  some  Thane  of  Cawdor,  a  prosper 
ous  gentleman,  takes  his  dinner — a  thing  which  is 
good,  but  not  unusual — then,  let  it  go  at  that. 

But  if  it  sounded  through  the  land  like  Roder 
ick's  bugle-note  in  the  Highlands;  if  it  rallied  the 
wavering  and  cheered  the  firm;  if  it  removed  doubts 
12  161 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

and  fixed  a  purpose;  if  it  was  the  guide  which,  leav 
ing  by-paths  and  cross-cuts,  got  into  the  plain 
straight  road  and  said  to  the  wandering  hosts 
"  Come  on!  " — we  ought  to  know  it. 

Previous  to  that  time  how  did  the  troops  or  the 
people  know  officially  what  they  were  fighting  for? 
Who  had  said  that  the  time  for  compromise  had 
passed,  and  that  under  no  circumstances  would  the 
colonies  remain  subject  to  Great  Britain? 

Private  individuals  might  clamor  for  the  Inde 
pendent  State,  but  how  could  the  soldier,  or  the 
average  citizen,  know  what  Congress  would  do? 
Suppose  England  should  back  down,  should  with 
draw  her  troops,  and  grant  every  demand,  redress 
every  grievance — would  peace  be  made,  leaving  the 
subject  colonies  still  subject? 

These  were  the  issues,  and  from  these  sources 
had  arisen  divided  counsels,  confused  purposes, 
and  plans. 

And  it  was  just  here  that  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  supremely  important.  It  settled 
the  debate,  removed  the  doubt,  fixed  the  resolution. 
It  burned  the  bridge,  it  crossed  the  dead-line,  it 
took  the  route  toward  that  bourne  from  which 
no  rebel  returns,  save  with  a  rope  around  his 
neck. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  not  a 
mere  matter  of  course  giving  satisfaction  and  that 
alone;  it  was  a  call  to  nationality,  a  watch-word,  a 

162 


THE    DECLARATION 

rallying-point,  its  official  statement  of  ultimate  aim 
and  object  becoming  the  pillar  of  fire  which  led  the 
people  through  the  darkest  nights  of  their  dread 
journey  toward  the  Republic. 

In  South  Carolina  the  Declaration  was  received 
with  the  "  greatest  joy  ";  "  the  President  (John  Rut- 
ledge),  accompanied  by  all  the  officers,  civil  and 
military,  making  a  grand  procession  in  honor  of  the 
event."  * 

Yet  South  Carolina's  delegation  in  the  Congress 
had  only  yielded  approval  to  the  Declaration  at  the 
last  moment. 

In  Georgia,  whose  delegation  had  stood  with 
Virginia's  from  the  first,  the  Declaration  was  hailed 
with  delight  in  every  parish. 

No  sooner  did  the  messenger  of  Congress  reach 
President  Bulloch  with  a  copy  than  the  Provincial 
Council  was  called  together,  the  document  read, 
and  "  rapturously  applauded." 

The  President  and  Council  went  in  procession 
to  the  public  square,  where  a  great  concourse  of 
citizens  had  gathered  and  the  military  was  under 
arms.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  again 
read,  amid  acclamations;  and  a  military  salute  was 
fired.  Then  a  formal  procession  of  all  the  public 
bodies  and  of  the  military  was  formed,  and  there 
was  a  grand  march  to  the  liberty-pole,  and  the 
Declaration  was  read  a  third  time.  The  artillery 

1  Edward  McCrady,  LL.  D.,  in  History  of  South  Carolina. 

163 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

fired  thirteen  volleys,  and  the  small  arms  were 
again  heard. 

Then  President  Bulloch  marched  the  entire  mul 
titude  to  the  battery,  at  the  Trustees'  Garden, 
where  the  Declaration  was  again  read,  and  another 
salute  fired  from  the  siege-guns  planted  at  that 
point. 

This  begins  to  look  like  enthusiasm. 

Then  there  was  a  banquet,  a  military  feast  un 
der  the  cedar-trees,  and  much  hilarious  drinking  of 
toasts. 

That  night  Savannah  blazed  with  the  light  of 
universal  illumination. 

There  was  a  monster  funeral  procession,  with 
military  in  line,  and  muffled  drums;  George  III  was 
buried  in  effigy,  and  a  mock  service  read  over  his 
grave.1 

In  all  the  Southern  States,  in  New  England,  in 
the  North,  and  as  much  of  the  West  as  then  ex 
isted,  the  fervid  outbursts  of  feeling  were  just  the 
same. 

Emphatically,  Mr.  Lodge's  summary  is  too  cold. 

1  History  of  Georgia,  C.  C.  Jones,  Jr. 


164 


CHAPTER    XIV 

JEFFERSON    IN   VIRGINIA 

FRENCH  statesmen  eagerly  watched  what  was 
going  on  across  the  Atlantic.  In  the  revolt  of  Eng 
land's  colonies  they  saw  an  opportunity  to  strike 
a  blow  at  the  ancient  enemy. 

Still,  caution  was  necessary.  Consequently,  the 
first  advances  which  were  made  to  the  colonies  by 
France  were  made  through  an  envoy,  who  bore  no 
credentials,  had  no  official  status,  and  moved  about 
Philadelphia  with  an  air  of  mystery  and  reserve. 
Attracting  attention  to  himself  by  vague  hints  and 
non-committal  messages,  this  envoy,  De  Bonvouloir 
by  name,  "  an  elderly  lame  man  "  having  the  "  ap 
pearance  of  an  old  wounded  French  officer,"  at 
length  got  himself  before  a  congressional  commit 
tee,  where,  refusing  to  show  any  credentials,  he  as 
sured  the  members  that  the  King  of  France  was 
their  friend,  and  that  money,  arms,  and  ammuni 
tion  should  be  furnished  the  colonies. 

Congress  appointed  a  secret  committee  to  cor 
respond  with  friends  of  America  in  foreign  lands. 
Not  many  months  rolled  by  before  the  money  of 
the  French  people  was  passing,  by  way  of  Beau- 
marchais,  into  the  hands  of  the  needy  Americans. 

165 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Silas  Deane  was  sent  over,  as  secret  agent,  to 
procure  military  supplies;  but,  after  independence 
was  declared,  Congress  decided  to  appoint  a  formal 
commission  to  negotiate  treaties  with  France.  As 
one  of  these  ministers  Mr.  Jefferson  was  chosen,  the 
other  two  being  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Silas 
Deane. 

But  in  the  meantime  Mr.  Jefferson  had  resigned 
his  seat  in  Congress,  had  gone  home,  and  had  been 
elected  to  the  Virginia  Legislature. 

The  temptation  to  accept  the  appointment  as 
Minister  to  France  was  great,  and  he  hesitated. 
After  keeping  the  messenger  of  Congress  waiting 
several  days,  he  declined  the  position.  He  pre 
ferred  to  serve  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  where 
the  opportunity  was  golden  to  accomplish  a  vast 
work  of  democratic  reform. 

Under  the  Old  Order  in  Virginia,  the  main  props 
of  British  aristocracy  had  been  deeply  planted. 
The  union  of  Church  and  State;  the  right  of  the 
oldest  son  to  inherit  the  whole  estate  of  the  father; 
the  law  of  entails,  which  kept  the  lands  in  the  fam 
ily,  in  spite  of  debts  of  the  heir,  or  the  heir's  own 
wish  to  sell — each  of  these  antidemocratic  prin 
ciples  was  in  full  force  in  Virginia. 

In  law,  it  was  a  crime  not  to  baptize  children 
into  the  Episcopal  Church;  a  crime  to  bring  a 
Quaker  into  the  colony;  a  crime  for  Quakers  to  as 
semble. 

166 


JEFFERSON   IN   VIRGINIA 

In  law,  the  heretic  was  burnt;  and  he  who  de 
nied  God,  or  claimed  that  there  were  three  Gods, 
or  pretended  not  to  understand  and  believe  in  so 
simple  a  proposition  as  the  Trinity,  was  a  felonious 
culprit,  who  could  not  hold  office,  could  not  be  any 
body's  guardian,  executor,  or  administrator,  was 
liable  to  lose  the  custody  of  his  own  children,  and 
would  have  to  continue  his  theological  meditations 
in  the  penitentiary. 

Payment  of  tithes  to  the  Church  was  compul 
sory;  attendance  upon  divine  services  was  com 
pulsory,  it  being  legally  necessary  that  the  good 
citizens  should  not  only  build  and  repair  the  church 
but  occupy  it;  not  only  pay  the  preacher  but  listen 
to  him.  Otherwise,  the  penal  laws  looked  to  it 
sharply — in  theory. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  only  part  of  the  code 
which  seems  to  have  been  enforced  with  any  regu 
larity  or  vigor  was  that  which  related  to  tithes. 
The  citizen  really  did  have  to  pay. 

There  was  some  persecution  of  Baptists  and 
Quakers,  and  other  dissenters,  from  time  to  time, 
but  the  instances  were  comparatively  few.  Relig 
ious  persecution  in  the  South  was  found  in  sporadic 
cases,  and  never  became  epidemic. 

In  Great  Britain  an  owl,  like  Lord  Mansfield, 
might  tear  his  offspring  from  an  eagle,  like  Shel 
ley;  no  father  was  deprived  of  his  children  in 
Virginia. 

167 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

When  the  common  danger  of  the  Revolution 
ary  movement  drew  all  kinds  of  people  together, 
the  Baptists  in  Virginia  shouldered  their  muskets 
and  volunteered  to  fight  for  the  cause.  It  was  then 
(1775)  that  the  Baptist  preachers  came  forward, 
and  asked  permission  to  preach  to  these  Baptist 
soldiers.  How  could  such  a  petition  be  spurned  at 
such  a  time?  Legal  permission  was  given,  and 
that  was  the  beginning  of  legal  religious  tolera 
tion  in  Virginia. 


As  to  primogeniture  and  entails,  Virginia  had 
them  in  all  their  vigor. 

Those  huge  estates  which  were  handed  down 
from  sire  to  son,  and  the  grand  old  mansions  whose 
hospitality  became  a  byword,  required  large  rev 
enues  to  keep  them  going.  Hence,  to  maintain  the 
feudal  establishment,  there  had  to  be  in  Virginia, 
as  there  were  in  England,  legislative  props  to  the 
system.  The  land  must  not  be  divided;  the  slaves 
must  be  kept  together  to  till  the  land;  the  oldest 
son  should  be  sole  heir;  his  debts  could  not  waste 
the  inheritance;  and  the  law  of  entails  would  hand 
it  down,  unimpaired,  to  the  first-born  sons,  forever. 

Thus  would  the  "  first  families  of  Virginia  "  per 
petuate  themselves. 

The  same  love  of  home,  pride  of  family,  and 
spirit  of  class  which  created  aristocracy  in  Great 

168 


JEFFERSON   IN   VIRGINIA 

feritain,  came  across  the  waters  with  the  Cavaliers, 
who  marked  out  manorial  domains  along  the  Po 
tomac  and  the  James. 

The  ambition  to  found  a  family,  to  perpetuate 
an  honored  name,  and  to  send  on  down  to  remote 
ages  the  home  house  and  home  grounds,  was  as 
strong  in  Virginia  as  in  old  England  itself. 

The  colonist  did  not  refer  to  his  estate  as  "  my 
plantation  "  or  "  my  farm,"  or  designate  it  vaguely 
as  the  "  place  where  I  live." 

No!  The  colonist  loved  his  home  too  well  for 
that.  To  him,  his  estate  was  a  part  of  himself;  and 
he  would  no  more  think  of  letting  it  exist  anony 
mously  than  he  would  think  of  letting  his  children 
run  wild  without  names. 

To  him  and  to  all  the  world  his  estate  was 
"  Gunston  Hall,"  or  "  Rosewell,"  or  "  Tuckahoe,"  or 
"Mount  Vernon";  and  you  were  laying  up  dis 
agreeable  consequences  for  yourself  if  you  failed  to 
remember,  and  to  use,  these  names.  Jones  does 
not  love  the  man  who  calls  him  Smith,  and  Smith 
bears  no  gratitude  to  the  careless  acquaintance 
who  hails  him  as  Brown;  and  this  punctilio  about 
names  of  persons  once  clung  with  almost  equal 
strength  to  home  as  well  as  to  person. 

In  the  very  life-blood  of  the  race  ran  this  warm 
love  for  the  ancestral  seat.  Chatsworth  was  not 
dearer  to  Cavendish,  Penshurst  to  the  Sydneys, 
Hatfield  to  the  Cecils,  nor  Alnwick  Castle  to  the 

169 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Percys  than  Westover  to  the  Byrds,  Shirley  to  the 
Carters,  Brandon  to  the  Harrisons,  and  Stratford  to 
the  Lees. 

A  democrat,  are  you? 

Of  course  you  are;  and  yet,  in  your  heart  of 
hearts,  you  warm  to  the  old-time  Cavalier  who 
chose  for  his  home  the  loveliest  spot  he  could  find, 
reared  a  costlier  house  than  he  could  afford,  made 
it  as  attractive  as  he  knew  how,  christened  it  with 
some  pet  name  of  fond  association — and  then  threw 
open  its  wide  doors,  and  said  to  all  the  world: 
"Come  sit  by  my  hearth,  come  eat  at  my  table; 
my  house  was  not  built  for  myself  alone!" 

There  is  a  certain  nobility  in  the  Englishman's 
love  of  the  ancestral  home. 

He  does  not  ever  willingly  sell  it.  Money  has  no 
value  beside  it.  For  ages,  perhaps,  it  has  been  iden 
tified  with  his  name;  the  memories,  the  glories  of 
his  race,  cling  to  it  as  does  the  ivy  that  climbs  its 
walls. 

The  boundary  lines  of  the  broad  acres  upon 
which  it  stands  may  have  been  marked  off  with  the 
sword  in  the  days  of 

The  good  old  way  and  simple  plan 
That  he  shall  take  who  has  the  power, 
And  he  shall  keep  who  can. 

The  chain  of  title  may  run  back  to  some  mag 
nificent  robber  who  followed  William  the  Norman; 
some  mail-clad  baron  who  bearded  King  John  at 

170 


JEFFERSON   IN   VIRGINIA 

Runnymede.  The  founder  of  the  house  may  have 
been  some  soldier  who  served  valiantly  when  the 
great  Armada's  shadow  fell  upon  the  coast;  or 
some  adventurous  seaman  who  flew  the  Union 
Jack  in  remotest  waters  with  Hawkins  or  with 
Drake. 

The  older  part  of  the  mansion  itself  may  have 
been  founded  hundreds  of  years  ago.  The  ancient 
towers  stood,  perhaps,  when  the  Black  Prince 
brought  home  a  captive  King  of  France. 

From  these  old  courtyards  Crusaders  may  have 
ridden  with  Richard  or  with  Edward  to  the  Holy 
Land.  Through  this  massive  gateway,  knights 
with  plumed  crests  may  have  followed  the  banner 
of  Henry  V  to  Agincourt,  or  Edward  to  Poictiers. 
In  this  noble  hall  the  Cavaliers  of  Rupert  may  have 
caroused  before  the  bugles  blew  for  Edgehill  or 
Marston  Moor. 

On  these  walls  hangs  armor  dented  with  the 
blows  of  sword  and  battle-ax  at  Cressy  or  Asca- 
lon;  banners  which  tossed  in  the  forefront  of  bat 
tle  when  the  war-cry  was  "  a  Chandos,"  "  a  Talbot," 
"  a  Warwick,"  "  a  Sydney,"  "  a  Lancaster." 

Upon  the  Rhine,  the  Seine,  the  Garonne,  the 
Scheldt,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Hudson,  the  Missis 
sippi,  the  Ganges,  the  Nile,  the  Modder,  sons  of 
these  historic  houses  have  fought,  and  rarely  failed. 
Under  Marlborough,  Wolfe,  Clive,  Nelson,  Rodney, 
Wellington,  on  land  and  sea,  in  every  quarter  of 

171 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

the  globe,  they  have  answered  the  call  of  king  and 
country,  of  duty  and  danger. 

Nor  have  its  glories  been  confined  to  arms,  to 
war  and  bloodshed.  Heroes  of  yet  higher  type  have 
made  the  old  house  illustrious.  Sages  whose  words 
of  wisdom  guided  nations;  statesmen  who  set 
bounds  to  empires;  mariners  who  dragged  new 
worlds  into  touch  with  the  old;  philanthropists 
who  laid  firm  hands  upon  the  reins  of  national 
thought,  and  gently  turned  crowding  millions  into 
better  ways  of  life;  masters  of  melody  whose  lofty 
rhyme  charmed  the  world;  masters  of  speech  whose 
inspired  tongues  electrified  the  world;  masters  of 
practical  achievement  whose  impulse  to  progress 
bettered  the  world;  masters  of  the  pen  whose  lines 
of  light  became  the  creed  and  the  hope  of  the 
world. 

Does  such  a  house  speak  no  word  of  inspiration 
to  the  son?  Does  it  awaken  in  him  no  sense  of  con 
secration?  Does  it  lift  no  high  standard  of  con 
duct  before  his  eyes?  Does  it  impose  no  solemn  ob 
ligations,  no  lofty  responsibilities,  to  which  he  must 
respond?  Has  such  a  house  no  meaning  which 
thrills  the  very  soul? 

To  keep  the  ancestral  home  in  the  family,  with 
all  of  its  sacred  heirlooms,  and  all  of  its  splendid 
memories,  and  all  of  its  tender  associations — these 
are  the  high  motives  which  explain  England's  law 
of  primogeniture  and  entailed  estates. 

172 


JEFFERSON   IN   VIRGINIA 

And  this  system  the  Virginians  brought  with 
them  and  established. 

It  may  not  be  true  that  John  Randolph,  of 
Roanoke,  set  his  dogs  on  the  man  who  came  to  the 
house  and  asked  if  he  would  sell  his  land;  but  it  is 
reasonably  certain  that  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  land 
barons  of  Virginia  would  have  resented  the  offer  to 
buy  their  ancestral  homes. 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  knew  that  there  was  another 
side  to  this  picture,  and  that  it  was  ugly  to  look 
upon.  Land  monopoly  could  only  be  good  to  those 
who  held  the  land.  Even  to  these  favored  few  it  is 
not  an  unmixed  good.  Hereditary  wealth  may 
breed  luxury  and  vice;  the  heir  who  can  not  be  dis 
inherited  may  become  rebellious,  a  thankless,  un 
natural  child. 

The  least  worthy  of  all  the  children  may  get  all 
the  property,  leaving  the  others  dependent,  their 
careers  a  subject  of  anxiety  to  parents. 

If  land  monopoly  is  not  wholly  beneficial  to  the 
favored  few,  it  is  almost  entirely  injurious  to  the 
unfavored  multitude. 

It  places  the  soil  out  of  reach,  removes  it  from 
the  competition  of  the  industrious,  tends  to  place 
it  where  it  will  be  least  useful  to  the  race.  In  cre 
ating  a  land  monopoly,  a  landed  aristocracy,  the 
law  establishes  a  caste.  Inevitably  the  system 
evolves  the  abuses  seen  in  the  older  countries. 

"Once  rich,  always  rich;  once  poor,  always 
173 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

poor  ";  whenever  such  a  statement  can  be  made  of 
any  people,  progress  has  ceased  and  decay  set  in. 

An  aristocracy  of  intelligence,  virtue,  meri 
torious  achievement,  Mr.  Jefferson  recognized  as  all 
men  recognize  it;  but  this  natural  aristocracy  owes 
no  homage  to  mere  wealth.  Its  glorious  ranks 
draw,  from  hovels,  recruits  who  come  uniformed  in 
sober  gray,  as  well  as  from  mansions,  where  pur 
ple  and  fine  linen  are  worn. 

To  found  aristocracy  on  birth  and  hereditary 
wealth  is  to  make  accident  the  test,  depriving 
nature  of  its  right  to  select.  To  make  character, 
intelligence,  noble  work,  high  purpose,  the  stand 
ard  is  to  put  it  where  the  golden  spur  will  be  worn 
by  him  who  wins  it. 

In  the  order  of  nature,  no  Chatterton  would 
starve  in  his  garret,  having  stretched  out  his  hand 
in  vain  supplication  to  Walpole,  the  grandee. 

Only  in  a  system  where  diabolical  art,  con 
trivance,  selfish  convention,  had  thwarted  nature 
would  Burns  break  his  heart  in  squalid  poverty — 
lacking  the  cost  of  the  daily  feed  of  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire's  dogs. 

It  was  not  nature,  but  a  system  carved  out  with 
pens,  barriers  thrown  up  by  statute,  which  kept 
Oliver  Goldsmith  under  the  wheels,  while  Mar 
quises  of  Queensbury  and  Dukes  of  Grafton  rode  in 
the  gilded  coach. 

Thomas  Paine  writes  Common  Sense  to  re- 
174 


JEFFERSON   IN   VIRGINIA 

deem  a  people  and  make  them  happy;  his  reward  is 
a  debit  account  of  about  one  hundred  dollars,  which 
he  must  pay  to  his  publisher. 

Edmund  Burke  writes  his  pamphlet  against 
democracy,  and  his  reward  is  the  smile  of  a  King, 
applause  of  the  aristocracy,  and  a  pension  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  per  annum,  which  democratic  tax 
payers  must  pay. 

Nature  is  not  so  unjust.  Every  beast  of  the 
field  had  its  chance  to  graze;  every  bird  of  the  air 
its  chance  to  fly  and  feed;  every  fish  of  the  sea  its 
chance  to  swim  and  live.  The  strongest,  the  fittest, 
survived  the  competition;  but  the  chance  to  com 
pete  was  always  there. 

Democracy  aims  to  give  all  a  chance.  It  refuses 
to  entrench  any  class  in  the  secure  possession  of 
the  blessings  of  nature,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
classes.  It  refuses  to  admit  that  all  the  merit  is 
to  be  found  in  any  one  class.  It  refuses  to  believe 
that  the  family  which  is  noblest  to-day  will  be  the 
noblest  a  thousand  years  from  to-day.  It  refuses 
to  despair  of  the  poor  and  ignorant;  refuses  to  stop 
the  wheels  of  evolution;  declines  to  close  the 
avenues  of  promotion;  refuses  to  put  up  social,  po 
litical,  educational  barriers  which  none  but  the 
wealthy  may  pass;  refuses  to  lend  its  law-making 
power  to  the  strong  who  would  exact  eternal 
tribute  from  the  weak.  That  the  strong  are  strong, 
democracy  can  not  help;  but  it  can  avoid  the  deep 

175 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

damnation  of  helping  the  strong  to  oppress  the 
weak. 

In  nature  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift, 
nor  the  battle  to  the  strong;  in  class  legislation,  in 
class  government,  it  invariably  is,  the  law  being 
made  for  the  purpose. 


Democratic  in  the  highest,  best  sense  of  the 
word,  Mr.  Jefferson  now  buckled  on  his  armor  to 
wage  war  with  the  aristocracy  of  Virginia.  The 
contest  was  stubborn,  bitter,  and  protracted;  but 
his  triumph  was  complete  in  the  end.  He  unfet 
tered  the  land,  changed  the  tenure  from  fee  tail  to 
fee  simple,  made  the  soil  democratic,  and  made  the 
law  to  correspond.  Henceforth  the  family  estate 
was  to  be  divided  equally  among  all  the  children. 


176 


CHAPTER    XV 

RELIGION   AND   SLAVERY 

THERE  was  a  union  of  Church  and  State  in  Vir 
ginia,  as  there  was  in  other  colonies,  and  as  there 
was  in  the  various  countries  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa.  From  Dahomey  to  London  the  law  was  the 
same.  The  priest  taught  the  people  to  obey  the 
king,  the  king  commanded  the  people  to  support 
the  priest.  Frightful  laws  against  treason  safe 
guarded  the  power  of  the  king,  and  were  upheld  by 
the  priest;  laws  equally  terrible  screened  the  priest 
from  criticism,  and  were  enforced  by  the  king.  The 
people  obeyed  both,  paid  both,  and  were  cruelly 
maltreated  by  both. 

Written  in  London  and  sent  over  to  the  colony, 

the  Virginia  laws  against  heresy  were  as  savage 

a  set  as  ever  disgraced  the  books.    Had  the  early 

Virginians  been  as  much  given  to  pious  practises 

is  177 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

as  the  Puritan  brethren  of  New  England,  there 
might  have  been  a  reign  of  religious  terror  South 
as  there  was  North.  Fortunately  for  humanity,  the 
early  Virginian  was  an  easy-going,  generous-tem 
pered  mortal,  who  never  could  have  found  luxury 
in  whipping  bare-shouldered  women,  pressing  old 
men  to  death  under  piles  of  stone,  torturing  little 
children  to  extort  evidence  against  their  parents, 
and  fattening  the  gallows  upon  the  rottening 
bodies  of  witches  and  Quakers. 

The  Virginia  code,  written  under  the  supervi 
sion  of  London  ecclesiastics,  was  bloody  enough  to 
have  pleased  Loyola  or  Torquemada,  but  it  was 
treated  as  all  Christian  nations  now  treat  the 
sublime  moral  code  of  Christ — all  believe  and  none 
practise. 

Open,  defiant  rebellion  against  the  Church 
would  have  been  put  down  in  Virginia;  and  when 
Baptists  and  Quakers  came  noisily  along  disturb 
ing  everybody  in  the  effort  to  teach  them  some 
thing  and  make  them  think,  the  conservatives,  who 
already  knew  all  they  wanted  and  who  did  not  wish 
to  think,  rose  up  and  asserted  the  rights  of  the 
orthodox. 

The  fussy,  clamorous  Baptist  having  been  put 
into  the  well-ventilated  pen  which  they  called 
prison,  he  was  left  to  preach  through  the  cracks  to 
whoever  would  listen;  while  the  parson,  the  mag 
istrate,  the  squire,  the  vestryman,  and  the  faithful 

178 


RELIGION   AND   SLAVERY 

members  of  the  Church  all  took  a  drink,  mounted 
their  horses,  blowed  horns  for  the  dogs,  and  gal 
loped  off  on  a  fox-hunt.  In  other  words,  there  was 
orthodoxy  established  by  law  in  Virginia,  but  there 
was  no  Inquisition  to  enforce  it.  Pharisees  did  not 
torture  their  neighbors  to  death  on  the  pretense 
of  saving  souls. 

What  the  Virginians  really  objected  to  was  the 
compulsory  payment  of  tithes.  The  pocket  nerve 
was  the  seat  of  the  pain.  After  the  coming  of  such 
Governors  as  Fauquier,  with  their  liberal  views, 
skeptical  books,  irreverent  conversation,  and 
non-pious  lives,  free  thought  made  long  jumps 
in  Virginia.  Such  professors  as  Dr.  Small  made 
a  different  atmosphere  at  William  and  Mary;  and 
from  the  college  halls  it  spread  throughout  the 
State. 

The  father  of  James  Madison  sent  him  North, 
hoping  to  preserve  the  lad's  orthodoxy  from  the 
contamination  of  the  home  school. 

As  liberal  principles  advanced,  the  number  of 
people  who  could  believe  in  the  creed  which  Henry 
VIII  had  made  for  himself  grew  steadily  less;  yet 
under  the  law  they  had  to  keep  on  paying  the 
parson. 

The  state  Church,  this  Henry  VIII  Church  of 
England,  was  neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant,  but 
a  mixture  of  both,  without  the  strong  points  of 
either,  and  to  freethinkers  it  was  peculiarly  offen- 

179 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

sive.  To  be  compelled  to  give  it  glebe  and  temple, 
house  and  home,  blind  reverence  and  liberal  sup 
port,  was  intolerable. 

Thomas  Jefferson  led  the  assault. 

"  Vested  interests "  made  the  usual  outcry. 
Its  voice  is  ever  the  same.  The  contest  was  long 
and  stubborn,  the  inertia  of  conservatism,  preju 
dice,  custom,  family  pride,  fixed  habit,  and  timid 
conscience  hard  to  overcome;  but  the  line  of  the  re 
formers  continued  to  advance.  It  took  years  to 
finish  the  work,  but  it  was  finished.  The  bloody  old 
laws  of  superstition  and  bigotry  were  repealed. 
Mind  and  tongue  were  unfettered.  Religious  lib 
erty  came  to  all.  The  Church  of  England  was  put 
on  an  equal  footing  with  all  other  denominations. 
Voluntary  offerings  of  the  faithful  must  support  it. 
Its  glebe,  its  temple,  its  lands  and  houses,  were 
confiscated — the  people  had  given,  the  people  took 
away. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  James  Madison  to  finish 
the  work  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  begun;  but 
when  the  task  was  at  last  done,  it  was  no  more  than 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  proposed  at  the  beginning. 

Justly  proud  of  this  glorious  victory  for  human 
progress,  he  ranked  it  as  equal  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  asked  that  his  monument  be 
inscribed  with  it. 

Working  with  Edmund  Pendleton  and  George 
Wythe,  Mr.  Jefferson  went  over  the  entire  judicial 

180 


RELIGION   AND   SLAVERY 

system  of  the  colony,  remodeling  the  law  and  the 
courts.  The  labor  was  enormous.  These  gentlemen 
not  only  reported  bills  creating  a  thorough  system 
— high  courts  and  low — but  they  framed  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-six  separate  bills  embodying 
changes  in  the  old  code.1 

All  these  measures  did  not  go  into  effect  at  once. 
The  work  extended  over  a  series  of  years.  Much  of 
it  was  finally  done  when  Mr.  Jefferson  had  gone  to 
other  fields;  but  the  scheme  of  reform  was  com 
pleted  along  the  lines  which  he  had  begun,  and  lit 
tle  if  any  departure  was  made  from  his  plan. 

The  subject  of  negro  slavery  was  one  which  had 
occupied  Mr.  Jefferson's  thoughts  for  many  years. 
He  was  an  original  abolitionist.  In  the  first  House 
of  Burgesses  to  which  he  was  elected,  he  had  caused 
to  be  introduced  a  bill  in  behalf  of  the  slaves.  It 
met  prompt  defeat. 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence  he  had  writ 
ten  a  clause  denouncing  the  inhuman  traffic.  Con 
gress  struck  it  out.  He  now  prepared  a  carefully 
considered,  but  perhaps  impracticable,  plan  for 
gradual  emancipation.  The  outlook  for  the  meas 
ure  was  so  unfavorable  that  he  did  not  even  have  it 
introduced.  His  bill  to  prohibit  the  further  im 
portation  of  slaves  passed  without  opposition. 

1  Mr.  Curtis  says  that  sheriffs  in  Virginia,  since  that  reform,  have  not 
been  required  to  gouge  out  eyes  and  to  bite  off  the  noses  of  criminals. 
Since  that  time!  The  reader  of  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson  derives 
some  queer  ideas  of  old  Virginia  from  Mr.  Curtis's  remarkable  book. 

181 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Realizing  that  democracy  must  rest  upon  the 
education  of  the  masses,  Mr.  Jefferson  formulated  a 
complete  system  of  public  schools,  from  the  pri 
mary  grade  on  up  to  the  State  university  and  a 
public  library.  He  was  too  far  in  advance  of  his 
time,  and  his  plans  could  not  be  put  into  operation. 
The  rich  man  declined  to  tax  himself  to  educate  the 
poor  man's  child.  In  the  South  of  to-day  we  not 
only  educate  the  poor  white,  but  we  tax  ourselves 
heavily  to  educate  the  negroes — another  advantage 
not  enjoyed  by  them  in  Africa. 

A  liberal  naturalization  act  was  the  work  of 
Mr.  Jefferson;  and  he  was  instrumental  in  effecting 
the  removal  of  the  State  capital  from  Williamsburg 
to  Richmond. 

Much  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  work  during  this  period 
of  reformation  was  done  at  Monticello.  The  state 
of  Mrs.  Jefferson's  health  was  the  cause  of  great 
anxiety.  A  daughter,  Jane,  who  was  fragile  from 
her  birth,  died  in  September,  1775,  aged  about  a 
year  and  a  half.  A  son,  born  in  May,  1777,  died  in 
June  of  the  same  year.1 

In  1779  the  four  thousand  captives  of  Sara 
toga  were  sent  to  Virginia,  and  stationed 
near  Charlottesville.  Among  them  were  many 
Germans,  whose  "  divine-right "  rulers  of  the 

1  Mr.  William  Eleroy  Curtis,  in  his  True  Jefferson,  says  that  all  of 
the  six  children  of  Mr.  Jefferson  were  girls.  Mr.  Curtis  is  in  error,  as 
he  so  often  is. 

182 


RELIGION   AND    SLAVERY 

"  I-and-God "  sort  had   sold  them  to  the   foreign 
service. 

The  manner  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  set  the  ex 
ample  of  treating  these  unfortunates  kindly  speaks 
loudly  for  the  native  generosity  of  his  character. 
From  lieutenants  up  to  generals,  he  made  them 
welcome  to  his  home,  his  books,  his  grounds,  his 
gardens,  his  musical  instruments,  his  philosophical 
apparatus,  and  his  hospitable  board.  Evenings  at 
Monticello  must  have  been  pleasant  to  the  captives, 
who  talked  with  Jefferson,  played  duets  with  him, 
and  enjoyed  his  wines,  fruits,  and  vegetables  in  the 
free-and-easy  style  which  he  so  much  enjoyed.  It 
made  the  major-general  and  the  baron  stare  when 
the  young  subaltern  got  the  same  treatment  given 
to  themselves,  just  as  it  made  the  diplomats  first 
stare,  and  then  howl,  when  Jefferson,  the  President, 
practised  the  same  rule  at  the  Executive  Mansion 
in  1801. 

Madame  de  Reidesel,  wife  of  General  de  Reide- 
sel,  who  was  one  of  the  prisoners,  says  that  she  was 
cruelly  insulted  by  the  ladies  of  Boston;  and  that 
the  wife  and  daughter  of  another  royalist  (Captain 
Fenton)  were  stripped  naked,  tarred  and  feathered, 
and  paraded  through  the  streets  of  that  city. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  she  was  not  insulted  in  Vir 
ginia,  although  she  rode  horseback  like  a  man — a 
trying  sight,  in  spite  of  all  that  can  be  said  in  its 
favor. 

183 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Among  the  captives  were  musicians,  including 
fiddlers,  and  they  always  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of 
the  evening  concerts  at  Monticello.  Captain  Bibby 
and  Mr.  Jefferson  played  duets  together;  and 
Bibby  used  to  declare,  long  afterward,  that  Jeffer 
son  was  the  finest  amateur  performer  he  ever  heard. 


184 


CHAPTER    XVI 

GOVERNOR  OF   VIRGINIA 

WHEN  Virginia  got  rid  of  Lord  Dunmore,  she 
placed  Patrick  Henry  in  the  vacant  place;  and  for 
three  successive  terms  of  a  year  each  he  had  been 
Chief  Magistrate. 

The  candidates  before  the  Legislature  to  suc 
ceed  Henry  were  Thomas  Jefferson  and  his  old 
friend,  schoolmate,  and  confidential  correspondent 
John  Page,  in  whose  cupola  at  Rosewell  tradition 
mistakenly  says  that  the  first  draft  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  was  written. 

The  contest  was  purely  political;  neither  candi 
date  took  any  part  in  it;  Mr.  Jefferson  was  elected 
by  a  few  votes  majority;  and  manly  John  Page 
wrote  him  a  handsome  letter  of  congratulation. 

A  big-hearted  patriot  was  this  rich  master  of 
Rosewell,  the  largest  mansion  in  Virginia.  The 
time  was  soon  to  come  when  the  American  soldiers 
would  need  lead;  and  then  the  Hon.  John  Page  was 
to  prove  the  quality  of  his  patriotism  by  stripping 
the  leaden  roof  from  his  grand  house  in  order  that 
Washington's  muskets  should  not  lack  bullets. 

It  was  on  June  1,  1779,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  en- 
185 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

tered  upon  his  duties  as  Governor  of  Virginia;  and 
his  biographer  gets  the  idea  that  this  was  one  of 
fice  that  he  afterward  regretted  having  accepted. 

Away  from  the  halls  where  statesmen  debate 
and  vote;  away  from  the  quiet  rooms  where  laws 
are  changed  and  peaceful  reforms  planned;  away 
from  hearth  and  home,  from  sunny  field,  and  rum 
bling  mill,  and  busy  mart  of  trade,  let  us  look  to 
the  camp  where  the  soldier  sleeps,  the  road  along 
which  he  marches,  the  battle  wherein  he  fights. 
The  brain  may  conceive,  and  the  tongue  proclaim, 
and  the  pen  record;  but  it  is  the  sword  which  must 
transform  dreams  into  facts,  declarations  into 
deeds. 

We  look  back  through  the  gathering  mists  of 
the  years,  and  we  see,  as  in  a  dim  and  distant  vi 
sion,  the  hurrying  events  of  the  great  struggle  for 
independence. 

We  see  the  dead  and  dying  heroes  of  Lexington 
and  Concord  borne  off  the  field  to  clean  New  Eng 
land  homes;  we  hear  the  wails  of  wives  and  chil 
dren  as  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  drips  upon  the 
floor. 

We  hear  the  shouts  of  fury  as  the  minutemen 
run  to  their  guns.  We  see  the  British  scurry  along 
the  road  back  to  Boston,  dropping,  dropping — by 
the  dozens,  by  the  scores,  by  the  hundreds — be 
tween  two  lines  of  fire. 

186 


GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA 

We  see  England's  army  shut  up  in  the  city,  and 
held  there  by  militia  whose  leaders  are  lawyers, 
doctors,  farmers,  mechanics. 

We  witness  the  charges  of  the  British  regulars 
against  the  Yankee  militia  at  Bunker  Hill — the  two 
which  fail,  the  third  which  wins — and  we  see  the 
unbroken  Yankees,  out  of  ammunition,  slowly  leave 
a  field  where  the  glory  of  the  substantial  triumph 
is  theirs. 

We  see  the  eager  faces  at  doors  and  windows  as 
Washington  rides  by  to  Cambridge;  wre  see  the 
gleam  of  his  sword,  under  the  great  elm,  as  he  takes 
command  of  the  army. 

We  see  the  line  of  steel  drawn  about  the  British 
in  Boston;  we  watch  the  fleet  as  it  sails  away  to 
Halifax. 

The  gallant  Irishman  Kichard  Montgomery 
comes  dowrn  Lake  Champlain  and  takes  Montreal. 
Benedict  Arnold  rushes  to  join  him  with  twelve 
hundred  men,  through  the  frozen  woods  of  Maine 
— an  awful,  awful  march. 

They  unite,  Montgomery  and  Arnold,  and  assail 
Quebec.  By  the  veriest,  narrowest  chance  they 
fail.  A  sailor,  who  had  run  from  his  post,  as  the 
other  British  sentries  had  done,  turns  back  in  the 
driving  snow-storm  of  this  last  December  night  of 
1775  and  touches  off  a  grape-charged  cannon.  The 
discharge  sweeps  away  the  head  of  the  American 
column,  killing  or  wounding  every  man  who 

187 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

marches  at  the  front  save  Aaron  Burr.  Montgom 
ery  is  among  the  slain. 

Day  is  just  dawning,  January  1,  1776.  Panic 
sets  in;  there  is  no  competent  man  to  take  the  dead 
leader's  place.  Burr  shouts  "  Go  on!  Go  on!  "  but 
the  officers  refuse  to  budge — talk  while  they  should 
be  acting.  The  British  recover  from  their  surprise, 
return  in  force,  and  all  is  over.  The  small  Ameri 
can  force  is  put  to  flight. 

We  see  the  British  fleet  come  back,  and  hover 
about  New  York.  The  battle  of  Long  Island  is 
fought;  Washington  is  defeated,  and  loses  a  thou 
sand  prisoners.  He  is  hemmed  in  by  overwhelming 
numbers.  Can  he  escape? 

Brave  Nathan  Hale  takes  his  life  in  his  hands 
and  goes  into  the  British  lines  to  gather  informa 
tion  for  the  desperately  situated  Americans.  A 
Tory  relative  knows  him  through  his  disguise,  and 
denounces  him  as  a  spy.  "  I  regret  only  that  I  have 
but  one  life  to  give  to  my  country,"  says  the  hero 
as  he  goes  to  his  death. 

The  British  general  is  the  slowest  of  mortals, 
and,  withal,  a  good  Whig.  Sydney  George  Fisher 
and  others  suspect  that  Howe  did  not  really  wish 
to  be  too  hard  on  Washington. 

Not  conscious  of  this  premeditated  lenity, 
Washington  is  most  anxious  for  his  army,  and  on 
the  first  foggy  night  he  slips  away. 

The  negro  whom  the  Tory  woman  sent,  during 
188 


GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA 

the  night,  to  tell  Howe  that  Washington  was  mov 
ing  off  fell  into  the  hands  of  Hessians,  who  could 
no  more  understand  the  negro  than  the  negro  could 
understand  them;  so  the  messenger  was  kept  un 
der  Hessian  guard  until  the  morning,  at  which  time 
the  message  was  stale — for  Washington  had  gone 
by  boat  to  New  York. 

Howe  gets  in  motion,  at  last,  captures  New 
York,  beats  Washington  at  White  Plains,  takes 
Fort  Washington  and  its  garrison  of  twenty-five 
hundred  men — a  stunning  blow. 

Washington  reels  through  the  Jerseys,  and 
black  despair  hovers  over  Valley  Forge. 

Will  no  friends  be  raised  to  us  in  other  parts 
of  the  world?  Have  human  hearts  in  foreign  lands 
no  generous  sympathy,  no  heroic  enthusiasm? 

We  turn  to  Canada — perhaps  the  helping  hand 
will  be  stretched  to  us  from  there.  Charles  Car 
roll,  of  Carrollton,  glorious  patriot  of  Maryland, 
will  brave  the  hardships  of  a  pilgrimage  through 
the  wilderness — Benjamin  Franklin  going,  too,  in 
spite  of  his  seventy  years.  All  to  no  purpose. 
Canadian  Catholics  have  been  affronted  by  certain 
congressional  publications,  and  England  makes 
them  timely  concession;  Canadians  will  stay  at 
home,  and  mind  their  own  business. 

But  from  other  lands  aid  comes. 

The  Dutch  will  lend  us  money  and  give  us  coun 
tenance,  being  the  first  of  all  the  world  to  do  so. 

189 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

General  Lafayette  will  come  from  France — 
come  in  spite  of  all  attempts  of  King  and  relatives 
to  prevent  him.  Poland  will  send  her  immortals 
— Kosciusko  and  Pulaski,  hearts  of  gold.  De 
Kalb  will  come,  Steuben  will  come. 

Ireland  will  send  men  who  know  how  to  die; 
and  France  will,  at  a  later  day,  range  her  lilies  be 
side  our  stars. 

Generous  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  for  democracy 
— it  burned  brightly  in  those  old  days!  Those  were 
days  in  which  soldiers  believed  they  fought  to  es 
tablish  a  new  system  of  government  on  this  caste- 
cursed  earth. 

The  great  war  moves  on.  Washington  dashes 
through  a  snow-storm  and  captures  the  one  thou 
sand  Hessians  at  Trenton.  Encouraging,  but  not 
decisive. 

Burgoyne  surrenders  at  Saratoga.  Again  en 
couraging,  but  not  by  any  means  decisive;  Pro 
fessor  Creasy  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding. 

With  varying  fortunes,  battles  are  fought.  Now 
and  then  Washington  wins;  the  rule  is  that  he  does 
not  win.  Factions  divide  congressional  councils. 
There  is  a  plot  to  throw  Washington  out.  Savan 
nah  falls,  Charleston  falls;  Boston  is  the  only  con 
siderable  port  in  our  hands.  Mad  Anthony  Wayne 
makes  a  brilliant  dash  at  Stony  Point;  but  the 
place  is  not  held  a  week.  Gates  is  annihilated 
at  Camden.  The  heavens  are  black,  the  patriotic 

190 


GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA 

pulse  beats  low;  the  faint-hearted  are  ready  to 
give  up. 

Benedict  Arnold  believes  that  Congress  has  been 
unjust  to  him,  and  the  splendid  soldier  becomes  a 
traitor.  Almost  the  American  cause  is  ruined;  al 
most,  but  not  quite.  Great  Britain  can  buy  Arnold, 
the  officer;  it  has  not  gold  enough  to  buy  the  hum 
ble  farmers  who  nab  Andre'.  His  fine  watch,  his 
gold,  his  frantic  offers  of  wealth,  avail  nothing 
against  these  stern  patriots  of  the  North.  He  has 
taken  his  risk,  he  has  lost,  he  must  pay.  High  on 
the  gibbet  he  swings,  like  any  other  spy;  and  Ar 
nold  flees  to  his  traitor's  reward,  glad  to  escape 
with  his  life.  West  Point  is  safe. 

Thomas  Paine  can  be  heard  through  the  gloom, 
the  burden  of  his  song  being,  "  Never  say  die!  "  As 
far  as  inspired  pen  can  go  in  sustaining  a  cause, 
his  goes.  Indeed,  it  is  "  a  time  that  tries  men's 
souls." 

Looming  above  all,  we  see  the  grand  figure  of 
Washington,  steady  as  a  stone  mountain.  No  dan 
ger  daunts  him;  no  disaster  shakes  him.  The  times 
call  for  patience;  he  has  it.  For  resources,  he  finds 
them.  For  courage  and  fortitude;  his  never  fail. 
For  splendid  self-sacrifice;  he  makes  it.  Beaten  to 
day,  he  will  fight  again  to-morrow.  Undermined  by 
treason,  discouraged  by  apathy,  fretted  by  Con 
gress  and  by  State  governors,  he  locks  it  all  in  his 
own  breast,  and  to  the  enemy  presents  the  unruf- 

191 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

fled  front.  He  will  not  hear  of  compromise.  He 
will  stoop  to  no  concessions.  When  his  nephew 
writes  him  that  some  British  officers  have  been  en 
tertained  at  Mount  Vernon  as  a  matter  of  policy, 
he  writes  a  rebuke.  Let  them  burn  the  house  if 
they  will;  Mount  Vernon  shall  not  give  shelter  to 
the  British! 

Heroic?  Yes,  sublimely  heroic.  The  world  has 
presented  no  finer  spectacle. 

And  that  which  is  the  most  inspiring  in  the 
glorious  example  is  the  fact  that  Washington's 
greatness  was  not  due  so  much  to  intellect  as  to 
character.  He  was  great  because  he  was  brave, 
resolute,  pure,  devoted,  right-minded,  and  right- 
hearted.  From  the  straight  line  of  duty  he  was  not 
to  be  tempted,  frightened,  discouraged,  or  misled. 
And  from  the  oracle  of  fate  he  would  not  take  No 
for  answer.  He  would  fight  till  he  won,  or  till  he 
died.  Thus  he  rose  above  all  rivals — not  thinking 
of  rivalry.  He  became  not  our  greatest  intellect, 
not  our  greatest  statesman,  not  our  greatest  sol 
dier,  but  out  greatest  man. 


192 


CHAPTER   XVII 

PAUL  JONES 

WE  look  out  toward  the  sea,  and  we  wonder 
whether  any  light  of  hope  can  be  there,  where  the 
English  have  so  long  domineered,  and  the  colonies 
have  neither  ships  of  war  nor  sailors  trained  in 
fight. 

Who  is  this  that  starts  out  from  his  Virginia 
home  to  hold  "  the  ocean  lists  "  "  against  a  world 
in  mail"?  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  of  Massachusetts, 
wrote  a  two-volume  history  of  the  American  Revo 
lution,  gave  a  page  of  text  to  Paul  Revere,  besides 
the  pages  of  pictures,  and  to  John  Paul  Jones  he 
gave — how  much?  Just  one  sentence! 

Woodrow  Wilson  wrote  a  five-volume  book;  he 
gaves  six  pages  of  pictures  and  text  to  "  the  Bos 
ton  Massacre  ";  and  to  John  Paul  Jones  he  gave — 
two  pages,  one  for  the  picture  and  one  for  the  text. 

And  yet  it  would  seem  that  the  first  naval  hero 
who  ever  baptized  the  Stars  and  Stripes  in  the  fire 
of  ocean  battle  and  ocean  triumph  —  doing  it 
against  the  greatest  sea  power  on  earth — deserved 
more  space  in  national  history  than  the  easy  ride 
of  a  courier,  or  the  doings  of  a  street  mob. 
U  193 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

We  see  the  small  black-haired,  black-eyed  young 
ster  start  out  from  old  Fredericksburg  and  begin 
his  work  as  lieutenant.  (December,  1775.) 

We  see  him  haul  up  to  the  masthead  of  the 
Providence  "  the  first  flag  that  ever  flew  from  a 
regularly  commissioned  war-ship  of  the  United 
Colonies  of  America." 

We  see  him  rise  to  the  command  of  the  ship; 
and  with  her  cruise  for  prizes  in  Newfoundland 
waters,  where  he  takes  sixteen,  and  wins  his  earli 
est  laurels.  With  the  Alfred,  he  again  roams  the 
sea  for  prizes,  and  gains  them.  His  service  to  the 
cause  is  valuable,  even  brilliant,  but  he  yearns  for 
larger  fields  and  deeds  of  greater  daring.  We  see 
this  bold  Scotchman  beg  Congress  for  a  sea-fight 
er's  task;  we  see  him  get  on  board  a  little  wooden 
tub  carrying  eighteen  guns;  and  the  Hanger  steers 
for  the  British  Isles. 

In  the  Irish  Channel  she  cruises  fearlessly;  at 
Whitehaven  the  glare  of  burning  shipping  tells  the 
startled  English  that  the  colonies  propose  to  carry 
the  torch  across  the  sea.  At  Carrickfergus  the 
twenty-gun  sloop  of  war  Drake  is  fought  and  cap 
tured;  and  the  dauntless  Jones  sails  away  to 
France,  dragging  after  him  in  triumph  the  British 
war-vessel  and  a  string  of  captured  merchantmen. 

In  1779  we  see  the  colonies  retaliate  on  Great 
Britain  the  coast  ravages  from  which  America  had 
suffered.  It  is  John  Paul  Jones  who  lets  England 

194 


PAUL   JONES 

see  from  her  own  homes  what  war  is.  With  an 
old  patched-up  Indianman,  hastily  converted  into  a 
fighting  ship,  and  three  other  merchantmen  turned 
into  war-vessels — all  these  being  furnished  us  by 
France — the  coasts  of  Great  Britain  are  thrown 
into  such  an  excitement  as  they  had  not  known 
since  the  days  when  Van  Tromp  swept  the  Chan 
nel  with  his  broom. 

Bead  the  introduction  to  Scott's  Waverley, 
and  note  how  great  is  the  terror  of  the  natives  when 
Jones's  little  fleet  comes  sailing  into  the  Frith  of 
Forth.  Great,  great  is  the  relief  when  God  seems 
to  answer  frantic  prayers  by  sending  the  gale  which 
sweeps  Jones  out  to  sea. 

Only  a  few  days  later  he  is  back  again,  this  time 
in  the  river  Humber,  where  again  he  destroys  Eng 
lish  vessels.  Then  comes  the  immortal  fight  with 
the  Serapis. 

In  the  annals  of  war,  on  land  or  sea,  there  is 
nothing  like  it — nothing  that  rivals  it  in  bulldog 
pluck  and  intelligent  desperation. 

The  Serapis  is  a  heavier  craft  than  the  Bon 
Homme  Kichard — carries  more  guns,  better  guns, 
more  men,  and  better  men.  The  hope  of  the  Rich 
ard  is  John  Paul  Jones.  At  the  very  first  fire, 
two  of  the  old  guns  on  the  Richard  burst,  killing  a 
dozen  men.  All  that  part  of  the  ship  and  arma 
ment  is  abandoned.  Only  the  guns  on  the  upper 
deck  can  now  be  used — her  12-pounders  throw- 

195 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

ing  but  204  pounds  on  a  broadside  when  the  Sera- 
pis  hurls  300  pounds.  So  the  fight  goes  on,  nearly 
an  hour.  Maneuvering  for  position,  both  ships 
cease  firing;  and  the  British  captain,  Pearson,  calls 
out,  "  Have  you  struck  your  colors?  " 

Through  the  darkness,  for  it  is  night,  comes  back 
the  voice  of  Jones,  "  I  have  not  yet  begun  to  fight!  " 

Together  come  the  two  ships,  and  Jones  lashes 
them  with  a  rope.  The  head  of  the  one  lies  oppo 
site  the  stern  of  the  other.  Grappling-hooks  reen- 
force  the  hold  of  the  ropes.  In  deadly  embrace  the 
two  ships  are  locked;  and  now  it  is  such  a  battle 
as  old  ocean  has  never  seen. 

Yard-arms  interlocked,  some  of  the  guns  useless 
for  lack  of  space  to  handle  the  rammers,  broad 
sides  thunder,  and  balls  rake  the  decks  at  point- 
blank  range.  Timbers  are  shivered,  cannon  torn 
from  carriages,  the  boards  covered  with  the  dying 
and  the  dead. 

The  September  moon  floods  land  and  sea.  On 
the  coast  clusters  of  people  watch  the  battle.  The 
beacon  light  of  Flamborough  Head  glares  across 
the  waters;  and  those  who  are  on  the  ships  can  see 
the  fortress  of  Scarborough  Castle  and  the  English 
vessels  which  nestle  under  its  guns. 

The  Eichard  seems  a  beaten  ship.  One  side  is 
blown  out  where  the  guns  had  burst;  the  decks 
above  had  been  shattered;  one  by  one  the  cannon 
are  silenced;  from  the  mainmast  aft  the  whole 

196 


PAUL   JONES 

side  is  beaten  in;  shot  from  the  Serapis  pass  clean 
through;  transoms  are  knocked  out,  stern  frames 
cut  to  pieces;  only  a  few  stanchions  hold  up  the 
decks. 

To  add  to  the  terror  of  the  night,  fire  breaks  out 
time  and  again. 

And,  strangest  of  all,  the  commander  of  one  of 
the  smaller  vessels  of  Jones's  fleet,  a  crazy  French 
captain,  Landais,  sails  up  to  the  combatants  and 
pours  three  broadsides  into — the  English?  No — 
into  the  astounded  Americans!  Then  he  sails  away, 
leaving  killed  and  wounded  as  the  fruit  of  his  visit. 

The  guns  in  the  main  battery  have  fired  their 
last  shots.  The  Richard  begins  to  leak.  The  car 
penter  loses  his  head,  and  begins  to  shriek:  "We 
sink!  We  sink!" 

The  master-at-arms  thinks  all  is  over.  He  re 
leases  the  prisoners,  and  cries  out:  "  To  the  decks, 
everybody!  The  ship  is  sinking!" 

The  English  prisoners  scramble  up  the  hatch 
ways,  fighting  desperately  with  each  other  to  reach 
the  deck.  The  carpenter  runs,  screaming:  "Quar 
ter!  Quarter!"  Panic  is  about  to  seize  the  whole 
crew.  Frantically  the  carpenter  tries  to  haul  down 
the  flag.  Officers  and  men  call  out  to  Jones  that 
he  must  surrender.  The  British  hear  the  uproar, 
and  again  Pearson  calls,  "  Have  you  struck?  " 

"  No!  "  shouts  Jones,  as  he  dashes  out  the  brains 
of  the  carpenter  with  the  butt  of  a  pistol. 

197 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

The  British  try  to  board  the  Kichard.  Jones 
rallies  his  men,  meets  the  boarders  pike  in  hand, 
and  drives  them  back. 

The  fight  grows  more  desperate  than  ever.  Offi 
cers  and  men  go  back  to  their  posts.  British  pris 
oners  are  made  to  work  the  pumps.  Others  fight 
fire.  The  surgeon  advises  Jones  to  give  it  up; 
water  has  overflowed  the  cockpit;  the  ship  can  not 
be  fought  longer;  her  battery  is  silenced. 

Jones  makes  a  jest  of  it — calls  for  the  doctor 
to  lend  a  hand  in  placing  a  gun.  He  himself  helps 
to  drag  it  in  position.  Only  three  9-pounders,  on 
the  upper  deck,  are  left  in  action.  These  he  trains 
upon  the  mainmast  of  the  Serapis. 

What  is  this  huge  black  shadow  which  comes 
gliding  in  between  the  two  fighters  and  the  harvest 
moon? 

It  is  the  crazy  Landais  again.  In  spite  of  cries 
of  warning,  in  spite  of  the  private  night  signals  that 
the  Richard  displays,  the  addled  Frenchman  pours 
three  broadsides  into  the  almost  dismantled 
Eichard! 

And  again  Landais  sails  away,  , leaving  killed 
and  wounded  on  the  American  deck  as  the  fruit  of 
his  visit. 

By  sheer  force  of  will  and  indomitable  pluck, 
Jones  drives  the  men  back  to  their  places,  and  the 
fight  goes  on. 

Sharpshooters  are  in  the  rigging  picking  off 
198 


PAUL  JONES 

every  Englishman  who  shows  his  head.  Hand- 
grenades  are  pitched  into  the  port-holes  to  destroy 
the  gunners  at  their  guns.  Away  out  on  the  yard- 
arm  of  the  Bon  Homme  Richard  crawls  a  daring 
sailor  who  drops  a  bomb  through  the  hatchway  of 
the  Serapis,  where  it  explodes  a  row  of  cartridges 
lying  on  the  main  deck.  Twenty-eight  of  the  Eng 
lish  are  killed  or  desperately  wounded. 

This  is  the  turning-point  in  the  battle.  The 
British  can  not  recover  from  the  blow.  Their  fire 
slackens.  The  American  ship  is  really  in  the  worse 
plight  of  the  two;  but  they  fight  on  with  ferocious 
persistence,  and  the  British  do  not  know  that  the 
Americans  are  about  to  sink. 

An  English  prisoner  makes  his  way  from  Jones's 
ship  to  the  Serapis  to  tell  them  there  to  fight  on — 
that  the  Eichard  is  beaten. 

He  is  too  late  by  the  merest  fraction  of  time. 

Pearson  has  lost  heart.  He  tears  down  his  flag, 
and  calls  out  that  he  has  struck. 

Richard  Dale,  of  the  American  ship,  knows  the 
value  of  hurry,  of  decision,  and  he  gives  Pearson 
no  chance  to  reconsider. 

Even  while  the  British  lieutenant  is  trying  to 
wedge  in  a  word  of  remonstrance,  and  doing  his 
best  to  tell  his  superior  officer  the  true  state  of 
affairs  on  the  Richard,  the  importunate  Dale  ha 
stens  Pearson  on  board  the  American  ship,  a  pris 
oner. 

199 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

For  fear  the  lieutenant  may  run  below  and  start 
the  Serapis  to  firing  again,  Dale  forces  him  to  fol 
low  Pearson. 

After  all  the  heroism,  the  skill,  and  the  carnage, 
the  final  result  turns  on  the  nerve  of  Jones  and  the 
presence  of  mind  of  Dale. 

It  is  a  death-strewn  deck  where  the  short,  slen 
der  Jones,  hatless,  bleeding  from  a  wound  in  the 
face,  and  begrimed  with  powder  stains,  stands 
proudly  with  his  drawn  sword  in  his  hand  to  receive 
the  formal  surrender  of  the  British  captain. 

The  light  of  the  autumn  moon  is  above  him;  the 
light  of  his  burning  ship  is  behind  him.  His  poor 
old  Richard  is  a  wreck,  torn  almost  into  splinters; 
it  is  filling  with  water;  it  is  literally  choked  with 
the  dead;  the  deck  upon  which  he  stands  is  slip 
pery  with  blood. 

But  it  is  the  Englishman  who  gives  up  his  sword, 
and  it  is  the  Stars  and  Stripes  that  still  flies  at  the 
masthead. 

After  the  Serapis  surrenders  to  the  Richard,  it 
is  the  Richard  which  sinks.  Jones  and  his  crew 
and  his  English  prisoners  all  pass  over  to  the  cap 
tured  Serapis. 

The  two  vessels  have  hardly  been  loosened  from 
their  long  death-grapple  before  the  Richard  slowly 
settles  to  her  long  home  in  the  deep. 

This  victory,  won  in  sight  of  the  English  coast, 
resounds  throughout  ,the  civilized  world. 

200 


PAUL   JONES 

The  Empress  of  Russia  and  the  Kings  of  Den 
mark  and  of  France  honor  him  with  ribbons  and 
orders  of  merit  which  amount  to  nothing,  and  pen 
sions  which  were  never  paid;  but  so  far  as  fame  is 
a  reward,  Paul  Jones  reaps  it.  He  is  spoken  of 
with  admiration  in  every  gazette,  cafe,  salon,  and 
street  group  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 

In  generous  England  he  is  denounced  as  a  pi 
rate;  and  Holland  is  asked  to  give  him  up  that  he 
may  be  hung.  The  Dutch  refuse;  but,  to  save 
that  people  from  the  effects  of  British  wrath,  Jones 
seeks  safety  in  France. 

NOTE. — It  is  well  known  that  Admiral  Paul  Jones  served  for  a 
short  time  Catherine  of  Russia,  in  her  naval  warfare  against  the  Turks. 
Official  jealousy  embittered  his  career  and  denied  to  him  his  just  recog 
nition.  Disgusted  with  the  Russian  service,  the  great  sea-captain  re 
turned  to  Paris,  where  he  spent  his  last  days.  He  lived  modestly,  and 
much  alone,  but  not  in  want  as  has  been  stated.  He  received  many 
marks  of  friendship  from  Americans  who  were  in  Paris,  and  was  not 
neglected  in  his  last  illness.  Gouverneur  Morris  drew  up  his  last  will, 
and  was  one  of  the  regular  visitors  during  the  final  days.  But  Jones 
was  alone  when  he  died ;  and  the  American  Minister,  Gouverneur  Mor 
ris,  did  not  attend  the  funeral.  Paul  Jones  was  no  friend  to  the  French 
Revolution,  but  the  Revolutionary  government  did  what  the  American 
Minister  did  not  do — honored  the  dead  hero  by  attending  his  funeral. 

It  certainly  was  a  queer  spectacle — Gouverneur  Morris  issuing  orders 
for  the  cheapest,  most  private  burial,  and  then  hastening  away  to  pre 
side  at  a  dinner-party ;  while  the  French  Assembly  takes  official  notice 
of  the  death,  selects  a  deputation  of  twelve  members  to  attend  the 
burial,  and  provides  a  military  escort  to  follow  the  body  of  the  immortal 
warrior  to  his  grave. 

In  his  diary,  Morris  tries  to  defend  himself.  He  intimates  that 
Jones  left  such  a  small  estate  that  the  heirs  would  have  had  the  right 
to  grumble  had  there  been  a  public  funeral.  Yet  the  estimated  value 
of  Jones's  estate  was  $30,000;  and  this  included  more  than  $6,000  in  the 
Bank  of  North  America.  Morris  knew  this,  for  he  had  scheduled  the 
property.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Morris  was  justified  in  his  extreme 

201 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

anxiety  lest  the  heirs  should  grumble ;  and  the  fact  that  Jones  was  so 
cheaply  and  obscurely  buried  that  his  grave  can  not  now  be  found,  and 
could  not  be  marked  with  a  monument  even  if  Congress  wanted  to  mark 
it,  is  due  to  Gouverneur  Morris,  the  American  Minister  who  ordered 
the  cheapest  and  most  private  funeral — to  Morris  the  cold-hearted 
snob  who  preferred  to  guzzle  wine  with  brother  snobs  at  a  dinner-table, 
rather  than  represent  his  country  in  paying  the  last  sad  token  of  respect 
to  the  bravest  seaman  that  ever  fought  under  our  flag. 


202 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

WAR     IN     THE     SOUTH 

THE  war  grows  more  savage.  The  French  alli 
ance  enrages  Great  Britain,  and  the  English  begin 
to  ravage,  burn,  slay  in  cold  blood,  committing 
every  outrage  known  to  war. 

Prisoners  are  barbarously  maltreated,  women 
suffer  nameless  wrongs,  men  who  have  surrendered 
are  mercilessly  butchered. 

This  frightful  change  in  the  methods  of  the  war 
is  felt  most  in  the  South. 

British  marauders  break  into  Virginia,  and  go 
out  unhurt,  Patrick  Henry  being  Governor.  They 
break  in  again  and  sack  Richmond,  the  traitor  Ar 
nold  in  command,  and  go  forth  unpunished,  Mr. 
Jefferson  being  Governor. 

Virginia  has  been  stripped,  exhausted,  to  supply 
Washington  at  the  North  and  Gates  at  the  South; 
yet  many  accuse  Mr.  Jefferson  of  negligence  and 
incompetence  for  not  rallying  a  home-guard  and 
giving  battle  to  save  Richmond. 

Had  Mr.  Jefferson  been  a  John  Sevier,  James 
Robertson,  or  Andrew  Jackson,  he  might  have  done 

203 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

better;  but  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  no  gov 
ernor  who  was  not  a  military  genius  could  have  pre 
pared  the  scattered  militia  and  led  it  successfully 
against  this  sudden  invasion. 

It  is  true  that  Washington  had  sent  warning 
that  a  British  fleet  was  making  toward  Virginia; 
but  the  water-front  of  Virginia  is  so  vast,  a  fleet 
can  strike  at  so  many  different  places,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  know  when  and  where  to  have  the 
militia  assemble. 

In  the  low^er  Southern  States  the  situation  has 
a  peculiarity  all  its  own.  There  is  no  large  Ameri 
can  army  under  the  general  command  of  some  over 
shadowing  figure;  but  there  are  a  dozen  small 
armies,  flying  columns,  under  chiefs  whose  names 
are  almost  unknown  to  history,  but  whose  services 
are  of  priceless  value  to  the  cause. 

As  a  rule,  these  partizan  bands  have  nothing  to 
do  with  Washington's  movements,  nor  he  with 
theirs.  As  a  rule,  he  knows  nothing  of  what  they 
intend  to  do  until  it  is  done.  As  a  rule,  they  call 
on  him  for  no  help  of  any  kind,  nor  does  Congress 
bear  the  burden  of  their  necessities.  Generally 
they  drawT  their  supplies  from  the  territory  in 
which  they  operate.  Horses,  guns,  ammunition, 
food,  recruits — all  come  from  the  Southern  colonies. 

Chief  of  these  partizan  leaders  is  General 
Francis  Marion,  "the  Swamp  Fox";  next  is  Gen 
eral  Thomas  Sumpter,  "  the  Game-Cock  " — heroes 

204 


FRANCIS  MARION. 


WAR   IN   THE    SOUTH 

of  South  Carolina.  Second  to  these  come  such  men 
as  Pickens,  Horry,  Lacey,  Hampton,  and  Hender 
son. 

In  North  Carolina  there  are  such  dashing 
leaders  as  Sevier,  Shelby,  Ashe,  Williams,  and  Mc 
Dowell. 

In  Georgia  the  bands  are  led  and  fought  by 
Generals  Elijah  Clarke,  John  Twiggs,  James  Jack 
son,  Lachlan  Mclntosh,  James  Screven,  Samuel  El- 
bert,  and  John  White. 

These  partizan  leaders  are  ever  in  the  saddle. 
Savannah  may  fall,  Augusta  and  Charleston  may 
surrender,  but  the  British  conquest  stops  at  the 
limit  of  the  British  camp.  In  the  interior,  resist 
ance  holds  its  head  up  all  the  time.  The  flag  never 
ceases  to  fly. 

In  vain  Cornwallis  comes  with  huge  regiments; 
in  vain  Tarleton  and  Ferguson  raid  and  ravage  the 
land;  they  can  not  stamp  out  the  rebellion.  Heavy 
battalions  may  win  this  battle  and  that  battle;  but 
on  the  morrow  will  come  Marion  and  Sumpter,  and 
Twiggs  and  Clarke  to  fight  again. 

Chase  these  partizans  from  Georgia,  and  they 
give  battle  in  the  Carolinas.  Chase  them  from  the 
Carolinas,  and  they  are  back  in  Georgia,  as  ready 
for  the  fray  as  before. 

A  score  of  Southern  leaders  fight  as  many 
pitched  battles  which  are  not  so  much  as  mentioned 
in  the  books  of  general  history;  and  some  of  these 

205 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF   JEFFERSON 

fights  were  brilliant  little  victories  for  the  Amer 
ican  cause. 

The  triumph  of  Elijah  Clarke  and  Samuel  Ham 
mond  over  a  portion  of  Ferguson's  command  at 
Cedar  Springs  in  July,  1780;  the  success  of  these 
officers,  aided  by  Williams  and  Shelby,  at  Mus- 
groves'  Mill  in  August,  1780,  were  the  important 
preludes  to  that  crowning  achievement  which  was 
soon  to  follow. 


206 


CHAPTER    XIX 

KING'S     MOUNTAIN 

BUT  what  avails  all  this  partizan  warfare? 
What  good  does  it  accomplish? 

The  flying  columns  gallop  from  field  to  field, 
dodge  from  swamp  to  swamp.  What  is  the  net  re 
sult? 

Let  us  look  over  the  Southern  territory  in  the 
year  1780,  when  all  is  so  dark  at  the  North — so 
dark  that  even  Washington  almost  despairs. 

British  emissaries  have  sent  the  Creeks  on  the 
war-path,  and  the  soldiers  of  Georgia  have  to  go 
and  rout  them  in  pitched  battles.  The  Cherokees 
are  also  aroused;  and  they  have  to  be  put  down  by 
the  men  of  the  Carolinas. 

This  danger  to  the  Southern  flank  had  come,  just 
as  Mclntosh  had  written  Washington  he  feared. 
But  the  Indians  had  been  whipped,  and  the  partizan 
bands  turn  once  more  to  the  British. 

We  see  Ferguson  sent  out  from  Cornwallis's 
main  army;  we  trace  him  by  the  smoke  of  burning 
homes,  the  shrieks  of  those  who  fly,  the  groans  of 
those  who  die.  His  path  is  one  of  desolation.  We 
see  the  men  of  the  mountains  muster;  they  have 

207 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

been  threatened  by  Ferguson,  and  they  take  up  his 
glove.  From  valley  to  valley  runs  the  call  to  arms 
— the  fiery  cross  of  the  Highlands  never  sped  more 
swiftly  to  summons  the  clans. 

And  they  came,  these  mountaineers  of  the 
South.  Congress  has  not  ordered  them;  Washing 
ton  has  not  ordered  them;  it  is  a  rally  of  volunteers. 
Under  Sevier  and  Shelby  and  McDowell  and  Cleve 
land  and  Campbell  they  mount  and  they  ride. 
Through  mountain  pass  and  over  plain,  through 
swamp  and  forest,  over  swollen  streams  which 
have  not  bridge  or  ferry,  on  they  ride — to  find  Fer 
guson.  Day  after  day,  in  fair  weather  and  foul, 
with  bloody  spur  and  tightened  rein,  they  ride — 
seeking  Ferguson.  The  weak  man  gives  out  and 
is  left  behind;  the  weak  horse  gives  out  and  is  left 
behind.  The  strong  man  on  the  strong  horse  spurs 
onward,  with  never  a  thought  but  to  find  Ferguson, 
to  fight  Ferguson,  and  to  conquer  him  or  die. 

And  he  knows  they  are  on  his  track,  and  he  feels 
his  peril.  Back,  back  to  Cornwallis!  Hurry,  cou 
riers,  to  Ninety-six  for  help!  See  him  falter,  see 
him  double  and  turn,  see  his  efforts  to  get  back  to 
the  main  army! 

Almost,  almost  the  men  of  the  mountains  had 
taken  the  wrong  road.  A  watchful  patriot  sees  the 
danger — averts  it.  Away  gallops  Edward  Lacey, 
thirty  miles  through  the  night,  to  put  the  mountain 
men  right. 

208 


KING'S   MOUNTAIN 

"Not  that  road!  Not  that!  This  road,  this 
road !  And,  oh,  men  of  the  mountains,  ride,  RIDE  !  " 

Well  done,  Edward  Lacey! 

Not  more  fateful  was  the  act  of  the  shepherd 
lad  who  showed  Bliicher's  tired  troops  the  short  cut 
across  the  muddy  fields  to  Waterloo! 

South  Carolinians  gallop  to  join  the  mountain 
eers;  a  band  of  Georgians  join  the  hunt. 

He  can  not  escape,  he  must  stand  and  fight — 
with  Ferguson  it  has  come  to  that.  On  King's 
Mountain  he  stops — brought  to  bay. 

Here  he  will  entrench  himself,  here  he  will 
await  the  reenforcements  that  are  pressing  the 
roads  to  reach  him.  Only  a  day's  delay,  and  all 
will  be  well. 

But  with  one  final  push  onward,  through  the 
night  and  through  the  rain,  the  mountain  men  are 
upon  him — volunteers  of  Virginia,  Georgia,  the 
Carolinas! 

They  neither  hesitate  nor  parley;  they  hitch 
their  horses  to  the  trees;  like  a  girdle  of  steel  they 
clasp  the  mountain;  and  up  they  go,  at  the  enemy — 
rifles  blazing  as  they  advance,  and  the  Southern 
yell  ringing  through  the  woods. 

They  are  less  than  a  thousand;  the  British  nearly 
twelve  hundred;  but  they  have  come  to  win,  believe 
they  can  win,  and  the  order  is  to  fight  till  every 
man  is  dead,  and  the  watchword  is  "Buford!" 

"Shoot  like  hell,  and  fight  like  devils!"  cries 
15  209 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Campbell.  And  the  watchword  is  "  Buford,"  where 
Tarleton  cut  down  the  patriot  who  bore  the  flag  of 
truce,  and  butchered  men  who  had  ceased  to  fight. 

"  Kemember  Buford!  "  And  let  every  man  fight 
till  he  dies! 

No  braver  soldier  than  Ferguson  stood  there 
that  day.  Taken  by  surprise,  attacked  when  his 
scout  had  just  reported  that  no  enemy  was  in  sight, 
he  sprang  upon  his  horse,  had  the  drums  beat  to 
arms,  made  ready  to  defend  the  hill  to  the  last. 
Like  Stonewall  Jackson,  at  a  later  day,  he  believed 
in  the  bayonet,  and  he  had  more  than  once  gained 
a  day  with  it.  Now  as  the  Southern  men  came 
against  him  he  would  try  it  again.  The  mountain 
thundered  with  musketry;  and  then  bayonets  were 
leveled,  and  the  lines  advanced  "to  give  them  the 
cold  steel."  The  Americans  had  no  bayonets,  and 
before  this  advancing  line  they  gave  way.  The  sil 
ver  whistle  of  Ferguson  sounds,  the  British  and 
Tories  return  to  their  hill,  and  the  mountaineers — 
rallied  to  a  man — pour  in  rifle  volleys  hotter  than 
ever. 

Dead  Tories  litter  the  ground;  men  and  horses 
fall  about  their  leader;  again  the  silver  whistle 
sounds;  again  the  word  is,  "Give  them  the  bayo 
net!  "  It  is  done;  and  the  patriot  ranks  give  back 
as  before.  But  the  instant  the  Tory  line  stops,  rifle 
play  begins,  and  men  drop  under  its  deadly  aim. 
Some  Tory  runs  up  a  white  flag.  Ferguson  cuts  it 

210 


KING'S   MOUNTAIN 

down.  The  fight  goes  on,  he  rides  back  and  forth 
encouraging  his  men,  two  horses  are  shot  under 
him,  he  mounts  a  third,  and  he  gallops  to  another 
part  of  the  line  and  cuts  down  another  white  flag. 
But  the  day  goes  against  him,  and  he  knows  it. 
Reenforcements  do  not  come;  Cornwallis  sends 
none;  Cruger,  from  Ninety-six,  sends  none;  Tories 
of  the  neighborhood  send  none.  Desperate,  per 
haps  despairing,  he  dashes  against  the  American 
line  where  it  seems  to  be  weakest — and  meets  a 
soldier's  death. 

That  ends  it.  The  white  flag — a  dozen — rise  on 
the  British  side,  for  white  handkerchiefs  are  waved 
from  bayonets  in  every  direction. 

Ferguson  dead,  his  army  captured  or  dead,  no 
man  escaped,  saving  the  few  who  may  have  slipped 
away  in  Whig  disguise — the  white  badge  on  the 
hat. 

So  it  was  in  October,  1780,  that  one  of  the  de 
cisive  battles  of  the  Revolution  was  won  by  South 
ern  volunteers. 


211 


CHAPTER   XX 

YORKTOWN 

KING'S  MOUNTAIN  electrified  every  patriot,  dis 
heartened  every  royalist.  After  that,  all  was  in 
creasingly  bright,  till  the  final  scene  at  Yorktown. 
At  the  Cowpens  we  see  the  Southern  men  again, 
led  by  the  same  stanch  Morgan  who  had  led  the 
Virginians  to  the  Continental  army.  On  that  day 
Washington  met  them  as  he  rode  down  the  lines; 
Morgan  saluted  and  reported,  and  his  words  were, 
"  From  the  right  bank  of  the  Potomac,  general." 
On  each  breast  was  the  badge  "  Liberty  or  Death! " 

Washington  got  off  his  horse,  walked  down  the 
line,  and  shook  hands  with  every  man! 

It  is  Tarleton  now  at  the  Cowpens,  not  Fer 
guson;  Tarleton  the  dashing  and  fearless;  Tarle 
ton  who  refused  quarter  to  Buford's  men,  cutting 
them  down  in  sheer  brutality  when  they  had  ceased 
to  fight — slaying  even  the  bearer  of  the  flag  of 
truce.  It  is  Tarleton,  fearless  as  ever;  and  he  al 
most  wins  the  day  at  the  Cowpens — but  not  quite. 
In  the  very  moment  of  his  triumph,  when  his  seem 
ingly  victorious  troops  are  flushed  with  confidence 

212 


YORKTOWN 

and  are  in  disorder,  John  Eager  Howard  wheels  the 
Maryland  line,  and  William  Washington  hurls  the 
Virginia  horse  on  the  flank  and  rear.  Caught  be 
tween  the  two,  the  British  are  ground  to  powder — 
Tarleton  flies  the  field.  Another  wing  of  Cornwal- 
lis's  army  has  been  destroyed! 

Now  for  the  supreme  test!  Main  army  to  main 
army;  Cornwallis  against  Greene! 

The  British  had  been  reenf  orced,  were  too  strong 
for  us,  and  the  Americans  had  to  retreat — fast  and 
hard.  It  was  a  life-and-death  race,  in  the  depth  of 
winter,  amid  terrible  hardships.  The  men  were 
barefooted,  almost  naked,  almost  starved,  pitiable 
to  look  upon  as  they  marched.  But  they  marched! 
The  stomach  was  empty,  the  body  was  in  rags,  the 
feet  dripped  blood — but  they  marched!  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  sudden  rains  which  flooded  the  rivers, 
just  in  time  to  delay  the  British  after  the  Ameri 
cans  had  crossed,  there  might  have  been  another 
Camden.  And  the  country  was  not  prepared  to 
stand  another  Camden. 

Finally,  Cornwallis  grew  weary  of  the  chase  and 
stopped  at  the  Dan;  then  he  began  to  retire,  and 
Greene  followed,  "  to  convince  the  Carolinians  that 
they  w^ere  not  conquered." 

Light-Horse  Harry  Lee  cut  to  pieces  a  body  of 
Tories  on  the  Haw;  and  finally  (March  15,  1781), 
the  army  which  had  been  chased  were  eager  to  com 
bat  the  chasers.  Guilford  Court-House,  in  result, 

213 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

was  an  American  victory,  for  it  was  necessary  to 
the  British  plan  of  campaign  that  they  should  tri 
umph,  and  they  did  not  triumph.  Greene  turned 
south  to  free  the  land  from  the  English,  while 
Cornwallis  went  north — toward  Yorktown.  We 
see  Virginia  ravaged  by  the  enemy,  its  Legislature 
scattered  to  the  woods,  its  Governor  riding  for  his 
life.  We  see  Cornwallis's  raiders  destroy  Jeffer 
son's  property,  cut  the  throats  of  his  blooded  colts, 
drive  off  his  slaves  to  die  of  smallpox  on  British 
ships.  We  observe  that  at  first  Cornwallis  does 
the  advancing  and  chasing,  while  Lafayette  and 
the  Americans  give  way — at  a  high  rate  of  speed. 
Then  we  see  the  tables  turned.  The  British  stop, 
then  retire,  and  the  Americans  entrench  at  Mal- 
vern  Hill.  How  could  Cornwallis  know  that  York- 
town  was  a  trap?  Washington  was  busy  with  Clin 
ton  at  New  York,  and  no  French  fleet  was  in  sight. 
How  could  Cornwallis  know  that  Congress  and 
Washington  had  grown  impatient  at  Franklin's  in 
activity  in  Paris,  and  had  speeded  John  Laurens, 
of  South  Carolina,  across  the  ocean  for  more  help? 
How  could  he  know  that  Laurens  had  boldly  pressed 
his  mission,  had  secured  half  a  million  dollars  in 
hard  cash,  and  that  the  money  and  the  ships  were 
moving  as  Washington  had  planned? 

So  Cornwallis  retires  into  Yorktown  and  en 
trenches.  The  Americans  close  in,  to  hold  him 
there.  But  why  can  not  British  ships  from  New 

214 


JOHX   LAURENS. 


YORKTOWN 

York  come  down  and  take  Cornwallis  out  by  sea? 
They  can,  if  they  will  realize  the  value  of  time. 

Washington  slips  away  from  Clinton?  Yes;  but 
what  hinders  Clinton  from  boarding  ships,  spread 
ing  canvas,  and  hastening  to  the  Chesapeake? 

Days  pass,  wreeks  pass,  eager  eyes  scan  the  wa 
ters.  Washington's  fate  depends  upon  France  and 
her  ships.  Cornwallis's  fate  depends  upon  Clinton 
and  his  ships.  Which  will  come  first?  Out  of  the 
depths  of  the  sea  who  will  come,  British  or  French? 
Local  tradition  says  that  when  at  length  the  masts 
of  the  war  fleet  were  seen  from  the  shore,  no  one 
could  distinguish  the  flags,  no  one  knew  for  certain 
what  ships  they  were.  Cornwallis  hoped  that  they 
were  English;  Washington  that  they  were  French. 
It  is  life  or  death.  Whose  are  the  ships? 

Tradition  tells  you  that  transports  put  out  from 
the  shore,  and  made  toward  the  distant  fleet,  closer 
and  closer,  to  distinguish  the  colors. 

Few  chapters  in  American  history  are  more  dra 
matic  than  this — the  waiting  and  watching  of  the 
two  armies,  the  anxious  eyes  which  day  by  day 
swept  the  bay,  looking  for  the  expected  ships;  the 
appearance  of  the  fleet  on  the  far  horizon,  the 
dreadful  doubt  as  to  what  ships  they  were,  the  go 
ing  out  of  the  transports,  the  waiting  for  their  re 
turn,  and  then  the  sinking  of  hearts  in  the  one  camp 
and  the  bursting  forth  of  joy  in  the  other  when  the 
transports  returned  and  the  word  was  shouted  from 

215 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

lip  to  lip:  "  The  French!    The  French!    Thank  God, 
the  French!" 

We  all  know  the  rest  of  the  story.  British  ships 
afterward  come,  but  are  beaten  off.  The  lines 
tighten  about  the  doomed  army.  There  is  bombard 
ing  and  musketry,  attack  and  counter-attack;  but 
the  American  lines  never  go  backward.  Finally, 
the  storming  parties  draw  out,  and  the  clinch,  the 
tug  of  the  war,  comes.  We  see  the  French  doing 
their  level  best  to  outstrip  the  Americans  in  the 
dash  at  the  British  works.  W"e  see  the  first  man 
mount  the  parapet.  It  is  Alexander  Hamilton.  We 
see  the  first  man  enter  the  works,  and  receive  the 
sword  of  the  first  British  officer  who  surrenders. 
It  is  John  Laurens.  Others  do  as  well — Kocham- 
beau,  Lafayette,  Lauzun — and  at  length  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  can  say,  "  The  work  is  done,  and 
well  done! " 


216 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE   SOUTH   IN   THE   WAR 

DURING  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  Washington 
had  wished  to  spare  the  fine  old  family  mansion  of 
Governor  Thomas  Nelson,  but  that  fiery  patriot 
would  not  accept  such  discrimination.  The  British 
officers  had  taken  up  their  quarters  in  the  house,  it 
being  the  best  in  Yorktown;  and  Governor  Page 
himself  had  the  guns  of  the  American  battery, 
trained  on  the  family  home,  offering  a  reward  of 
five  guineas  to  the  first  gunner  who  should  strike 
it.  The  Nelsons  had  been  among  the  original  set 
tlers  of  Yorktown,  and  so  far  as  its  upbuilding  is 
concerned  may  be  called  its  founders.  The  Mar 
quis  of  Chastellux,  who  was  entertained  there  dur 
ing  his  travels,  describes  the  elegance  and  luxury 
of  the  Nelson  home,  and  paints  an  attractive  pic 
ture  of  the  Southern  high  life  of  that  period. 

It  was  Thomas  Nelson  who  succeeded  Mr. 
Jefferson  as  Governor  of  Virginia;  and  the  place 
proved  as  burdensome  to  the  one  as  it  had  done  to 
the  other.  Nelson's  patriotism  was  like  that  of 
John  Page  and  so  many  others — it  counted  no  cost. 
Like  Page,  he  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  of  men  at 

217 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

the  beginning  of  the  struggle;  like  Page,  the  end 
of  the  war  found  him  bankrupt.  When  Virginia 
had  no  money  and  no  credit,  he  went  down  into  his 
own  pocket,  and  he  strained  his  own  credit,  to  get 
funds  to  pay  the  soldiers,  food  to  feed  them,  and 
ammunition  for  their  guns. 

After  the  peace,  when  the  Virginia  Convention 
was  debating  whether  British  debts  should  be  con 
fiscated,  it  was  Nelson  who  settled  the  question 
with  the  manly  speech:  "Others  may  do  as  they 
please;  but  as  for  me,  I  am  an  honest  man,  and  so 
help  me  God!  I  will  pay  my  debts."  His  property 
was  enormous,  but  so  were  his  liabilities;  and,  in 
the  end,  the  whole  estate  was  swept  away,  leaving 
his  blind  widow  destitute  in  her  old  age.1 


How  deplorable  it  is  to  see  Professor  Channing, 
of  Harvard,  in  his  Student's  History,  lending  the 
influence  of  his  name  and  position  to  perpetrate 
sectional  prejudice  and  injustice!  What  possible 
good  can  come  of  such  statements  as  he  makes  on 
page  217  of  his  book? 

The  South  easier  to  conquer  than  the  North? 
The  "  Southerners  able  to  make  but  slight  resist 
ance"?  Was  it  so  much  worse  for  the  South  to 
lose  Charleston  and  Savannah  than  it  was  for  the 
North  to  lose  New  York  and  Philadelphia?  Cam- 

1  The  Old  South,  by  Thomas  Nelson  Page. 
218 


XHE    SOUTH   IN   THE   WAR 

den  was  bad,  but  was  Long  Island  good?  Was 
Germantown  good?  Was  the  capture  of  Fort 
Washington  good?  In  1780  did  not  Washington 
write  that  he  was  almost  at  the  end  of  his  tether, 
and  that  unless  a  change  came  it  would  be  impos 
sible  to  hold  the  army  together?  From  whence 
came  the  change?  First,  Musgroves'  Mill,  a  victory 
of  Carolinians  and  Georgians,  led  by  Elijah  Clark, 
of  Georgia,  and  Shelby,  Williams,  and  Branham,  of 
the  Carolinas  (August,  1780).  Second,  King's  Moun 
tain,  wholly  the  triumph  of  Southern  men,  October, 
1780.  Third,  the  Cowpens,  January,  1781. 

This  list  leaves  out  Blackstock,  where  Caro 
linians,  under  Sumpter,  and  Georgians,  under 
Twiggs,  whipped  Tarleton;  Kettle  Creek,  where 
Pickens  and  Clark  routed  Boyd;  Fishdam,  where 
the  British  were  repulsed  by  Sumpter  and  Twiggs; 
and  scores  of  other  skirmishes,  which,  had  they  hap 
pened  in  New  England,  would  have  lived  in  song 
and  story  as  conflicts  never  to  be  forgotten. 

"  The  Southerners  able  to  make  but  slight  oppo 
sition?  "  If  that  statement  be  true,  discredit  rests 
upon  the  South:  if  it  be  untrue,  the  discredit  rests 
upon  the  author  of  so  grave  a  charge.  "  The  South 
erners  "  were  able  to  win  the  battles  that  turned 
the  tide  of  the  war,  and  they  were  able  to  supply  to 
the  cause  a  very  handsome  pro  rata  of  good  sol 
diers.  The  white  male  population  of  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania  over  sixteen  years  of  age  was  about 

219 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

the  same,  yet  fifty-six  thousand  "  Southerners " 
went  to  the  front  where  but  thirty-four  thousand 
Pennsylvanians  appeared. 

New  York  had  double  the  military  population 
of  South  Carolina,  while  New  Hampshire's  was 
slightly  greater,  yet  from  this  small  State  "  the 
Southerners "  who  shouldered  muskets  outnum 
bered  the  New  Hampshire  men  more  than  two  to 
one,  and  they  exceeded  New  York's  quota  by  twen 
ty-nine  thousand. 

Out  of  every  forty-two  of  her  military  popula 
tion,  Massachusetts  enlisted  thirty-two — a  splendid 
showing.  But  in  South  Carolina  thirty-seven 
"  Southerners  "  out  of  every  forty-two  "  were  able  " 
to  enlist  and  fight,  and  they  did  so.1 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  make  such  comparisons  as 
this,  yet  the  provocation  is  wanton,  and  the  temp 
tation  not  to  be  resisted.  Really,  if  the  story  of  our 
republic  deserves  to  be  told  at  all,  the  aim  should 
be  to  tell  the  truth;  and  it  can  not  be  to  the  perma 
nent  benefit  of  "  students,"  or  general  readers,  to 
have  themselves  saturated  with  prejudice  and 
error. 

Equally  misleading  is  Professor  Channing's  ref 
erence  to  the  proposition  Governor  Kutledge  is  said 
to  have  made  to  the  British.  The  professor's  state 
ment  leaves  the  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 

i  The  South,  by  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry — referring  to  General  Knox's 
official  estimate. 

220 


THE    SOUTH    IN    THE   WAR 

reader  that  the  general  situation  in  the  Southern 
States  was  so  hopeless  that  South  Carolina  pro 
posed  to  lay  down  arms  and  remain  neutral  in  the 
struggle.  Collegiate  bulls  in  historical  china-shops 
do,  indeed,  make  sad  havoc,  and  the  learned  Har 
vard  professor  is  no  exception.  The  Rutledge  letter 
was  not  an  expression  of  general  despondence.  It 
was  the  tentative  proposition  of  an  official  who  had 
been  caught  unready  for  defense  by  a  large  British 
army;  and  who,  in  the  excited  counsels  of  the  mo 
ment,  sought  to  save  the  chief  city  of  the  South  by 
a  concession  which  would  have  rendered  the  Brit 
ish  conquest  of  no  practical  service  to  them.  The 
proposition  ought  not  to  have  been  made,  was  pro 
tested  against  by  some  of  the  Governor's  strongest 
advisers,  was  disapproved  by  General  Moultrie,  and 
was  spurned  by  John  Laurens,  who  refused  to  be 
the  bearer  of  it.  It  required  the  exertion  of  Gen 
eral  Moultrie's  authority  to  get  an  officer  who 
would  carry  it.  The  British  rejected  it;  General 
Moultrie  declared  that  he  would  fight  rather  than 
surrender;  and  his  decision  was  heard  with  a  burst 
of  satisfaction. 

"Now,  we  are  on  our  feet  again!"  cried  John 
Laurens,  and  nothing  could  prove  more  conclusively 
the  general  feeling  among  those  whose  duty  it  was 
to  do  the  fighting. 

The  facts  are  that  a  British  army  appeared  be 
fore  Charleston,  catching  the  city  unprepared. 

221 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Governor  Kutledge  and  a  majority  of  his  council 
favored  a  capitulation.  General  Moultrie,  John 
Laurens,  Colonel  Mclntosh,  and  most  of  the  other 
officers  opposed  it.  Rutledge  and  the  British  com 
mander,  Prevost,  began  to  exchange  notes.  The 
exact  terms  Rutledge  proposed  are  in  dispute.  Ac 
cording  to  the  written  statement  of  Laurens  him 
self,  the  Governor's  conditions,  if  accepted,  would 
have  rendered  Charleston  useless  to  the  enemy.  It 
certainly  is  significant  that  Prevost  refused  to  con 
sider  them. 

Moultrie  had  determined  to  fight;  his  lieuten 
ants  hailed  his  decision  with  joy,  the  flag  was  waved 
to  put  the  enemy  on  notice  that  negotiations  were 
off,  and  his  main  body  began  to  retire. 

So  far  were  "  the  Southerners  "  from  any  inten 
tion  of  quitting  the  contest  that  Prevost  only  es 
caped  capture  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  General 
Lincoln,  of  Massachusetts  (who  finally  lost  Charles 
ton),  did  not  know  how  to  bring  up  his  reenforce- 
ments,  which  were  in  striking  distance.  It  was 
Lincoln's  extreme  tardiness  that  caused  Rutledge's 
predicament  and  his  proposition — a  proposition 
which  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  his  people 
would  have  ratified. 


222 


CHAPTER    XXII 

GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

WHILE  the  Revolutionary  War  was  raging  in 
the  East  and  South,  the  WTestern  frontier  was  the 
scene  of  many  a  bloody  skirmish  between  British- 
led  Indians  and  the  white  settlers  who  had  pushed 
across  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  From  headquar 
ters  at  Detroit,  agents  of  the  English  Government 
penetrated  southward  and  westward,  rousing  the 
Indians,  bribing  them  with  rewards  for  scalps,  un 
til  the  whole  of  the  vast  wilderness  along  the  Illi 
nois  and  the  Ohio  was  a  dark  and  bloody  ground. 
American  hunters  and  trappers  were  ambushed 
and  scalped;  defenseless  women  and  children  in  the 
lonely  cabins  were  tomahawked  and  scalped.  Some 
times  the  white  man  would  be  carried  away  alive, 
to  be  burnt  later  at  the  stake.  Sometimes  the 
women  and  children  would  be  led  off  to  the  woods, 
the  children  to  grow  up  as  savages,  the  women  to 
become  squaws  of  the  savages.  The  British  Gov 
ernor  at  Detroit  encouraged  every  Indian  that 
roamed  the  w^oods,  for  the  scalps  were  delivered 
and  the  rewards  paid  at  Detroit. 

223 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

The  English  policy  was  opposed  to  the  west 
ward  expansion  of  the  American  people.  But  just 
as  the  Carolinians  had  crossed  over  into  what  is 
now  Tennessee,  and  had  made  good  their  footing 
against  hostile,  hard-fighting  Indians,  so  had  men 
of  the  same  fiber  passed  on  into  Kentucky  and  into 
the  Illinois  country.  Men  like  Boone  and  Kenton 
and  Clark  loved  the  wilderness,  its  hunting- 
grounds,  its  freedom  from  restraint,  almost  as 
well  as  the  Indians  loved  it.  Kestless,  fond  of  ad 
venture,  impatient  of  system  or  confinement,  these 
half-wild  pioneers  formed  the  skirmish-line  of 
advancing  civilization.  What  deeds  of  reckless 
courage  they  did,  what  shocking  barbarities  they 
committed,  what  privations  they  endured,  what 
tragic  fates  so  many  of  them  met — is  a  story  most 
eloquently  told  in  the  simplest  language  of  bare 
fact.  They  carried  their  lives  in  their  hands 
always;  the  rifle  and  the  knife  never  left  their 
sight.  Sleepless  vigilance  was  the  very  law  of  ex 
istence — vigilance,  fearlessness,  and  infinite  re 
source. 

In  the  winter  of  1776-'T7  the  struggle  along  the 
skirmish-line  was  one  of  extermination.  The  Brit 
ish  were  bent  upon  driving  it  back  to  the  old  bor 
ders  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  Hamilton's  or 
ders  were  to  "  kill  and  burn."  British  Canadians, 
French  Canadians,  renegade  Tories  from  the  col 
onies,  Huron  Indians,  and  Shawnees  swooped 

224 


GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

down  upon  the  frontier  settlements  before  the  snow 
was  off  the  ground.  From  the  Monongahela  to  the 
Kentucky  River  there  was  guerrilla  war,  the  burn 
ing  of  houses,  the  massacre  of  settlers,  the  wasting 
of  thrifty  farms.  Excepting  the  forts  and  block 
houses,  to  which  the  panic-stricken  people  fled  for 
shelter,  the  land  was  left  desolate. 

It  was  during  this  time  of  terror  that  George 
Eogers  Clark  went  to  Patrick  Henry,  Governor  of 
Virginia,  and  outlined  his  plan  of  conquest  beyond 
the  Ohio.  He  believed  that  he  could  not  only  hold 
the  frontier  which  Hamilton  had  assailed,  but  that 
he  could  win  the  Illinois  country  beyond.  The 
Revolutionary  War  wras  draining  Virginia  of  all 
her  resources,  and  it  was  not  a  favorable  time  for 
distant  expeditions  of  conquest,  but  Clark  found 
sympathy  and  support.  He  had  been  living  for 
some  time  in  Kentucky,  where  Daniel  Boone, 
Kenton,  and  other  almost  nameless  heroes  were  de 
fending  the  soil.  Born  in  Albemarle,  Clark  was 
known  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  the  bold  plan  of 
the  young  soldier  captivated  the  statesman.  Not 
only  did  Jefferson  favor  the  enterprise,  but  George 
Mason  and  George  Wythe  did  also.  The  Governor 
advanced  six  thousand  dollars,  furnished  boats, 
supplies,  and  ammunition,  and  authorized  the  en 
listment  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  militiamen.  A 
slighter  equipment  never  yielded  larger  returns. 
In  May,  1778,  after  all  sorts  of  difficulties  and  dis- 
16  225 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

couragements,  Clark  set  out  from  the  Redstone  set 
tlements,  stopped  at  Pittsburg  for  his  supplies, 
drifted  on  down  the  Ohio,  and  on  May  27th  reached 
the  falls  where  Louisville  now  stands.  Here  Ken- 
ton  joined  him  with  some  Kentuckians.  Bowing 
farther  down,  in  June  he  landed  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Tennessee  and  struck  into  the  wilderness 
toward  Kaskaskia.  After  a  march  of  toil  and 
difficulty  he  reached  the  fort,  took  it  by  surprise, 
gaining  a  bloodless  victory. 

There  is  a  dramatic  story  to  the  effect  that  when 
Clark's  men  drew  near  that  night  they  found  the 
fort  lit  up,  fiddles  going  merrily,  and  the  defend 
ers  tripping  the  light  fantastic  toe.  Clark  made 
his  way  to  the  ballroom  and  leaned  back  against  the 
door,  with  crossed  arms,  looking  on.  An  Indian, 
lying  on  the  floor,  gazed  intently  on  Clark's  face, 
then  sprang  up  and  gave  the  war-whoop,  the  un 
earthly  war-whoop.  A  war-whoop,  by  the  way, 
which  is  not  unearthly  is  not  up  to  standard  and  is 
not  allowed  in  the  books. 

When  the  Indian  whooped  it  was  evidently  time 
for  the  women  to  scream;  and  when  the  women 
were  all  screaming,  it  was  impossible  to  fiddle  and 
dance. 

The  story  goes  that  Clark,  standing  unmoved, 
arms  still  crossed,  countenance  unchanged,  bade 
them  "On  with  the  dance!" — warning  them,  how 
ever,  that  they  must  now  dance  under  Virginia  and 

226 


GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

not  under  Great  Britain.  At  the  same  time  his  men 
burst  into  the  fort,  etc. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  likes  this  story  so  well  that  he 
puts  it  into  his  Winning  of  the  West,  saying  that 
he  sees  no  good  reason  for  rejecting  it  entirely. 

For  the  same  reason  the  present  writer  likes  it, 
and  has  not  rejected  it — entirely. 

If  the  story  had  not  been  ended  so  abruptly,  if 
we  had  been  told  what  the  fiddlers  and  dancers  did 
after  Clark  gave  them  permission  to  proceed,  one's 
ideas  might  be  clearer  and  more  satisfactory. 

But  if  the  episode  of  the  ballroom  draws  rather 
heavily  upon  credulity,  the  wonderful  events  which 
followed  are  involved  in  no  doubts. 

A  mere  handful  of  Virginians  and  Kentuckians 
had  ventured  hundreds  of  miles  into  hostile  re 
gions,  far  from  any  supports,  where  enemies  in 
overwhelming  numbers  swarmed  on  every  side. 
The  French  inhabitants  and  garrisons  of  these  re 
mote  towns  were  under  British  rule;  British  troops 
themselves  might  be  expected  at  any  moment;  and 
powerful  Indian  tribes,  who  had  no  love  for  the 
"  Long  Knives " — intruders  upon  their  hunting- 
grounds — needed  but  prompting  and  leadership  to 
fall  upon  this  little  band  of  two  hundred  and  de 
stroy  it.  The  situation  was  appalling.  Yet  Clark 
met  it  with  superb  skill  and  nerve.  By  a  policy  of 
mingled  firmness  and  kindness  he  won  the  hearts 
of  the  French.  Their  priest,  Pierre  Gibault,  became 

227 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

his  partizan,  quieted  every  murmur  at  Kaskas- 
kia,  volunteered  to  go  to  Vincennes,  and  won 
over  the  French  inhabitants  there,  prevailing  upon 
them  to  declare  for  America  and  to  run  up  the 
American  flag. 

This  was  much;  but  more  remained  to  be  done. 
The  Indians  had  to  be  held  in  check.  From  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Lakes  the  red  men  were  dis 
turbed;  for,  while  they  had  been  hostile  to  the 
Americans,  they  had  been  friendly  to  these  French. 
Thus  they  paused  at  the  very  instant  that  the  ar 
row  was  on  the  string — hesitated  when  the  toma 
hawk  was  already  in  the  uplifted  hand. 

Had  Clark  not  conciliated  the  French,  had  not 
Pierre  Gibault  succeeded  in  getting  the  American 
flag  hoisted  at  Vincennes  as  well  as  at  Kaskas- 
kia,  there  would  probably  have  been  no  grand 
council  of  Indian  chiefs  to  confer  with  one  another 
and  listen  to  Clark. 

But  the  attitude  of  the  French  confused  the 
Indians  and  caused  them  to  come  from  all  direc 
tions  and  from  long  distances  to  talk — to  talk  with 
Clark. 

It  wras  a  grand  gathering;  and  the  temper  of 
the  Indians  was  ugly.  But  Clark  had  a  genius  for 
managing  borderers,  white  or  red;  and  he  so  gained 
upon  the  untutored  children  of  the  forest,  with 
mingled  suavity  and  sternness,  a  seeming  careless 
ness  and  a  vigilance  which  could  not  be  caught  nap- 

228 


GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

ping,  that  they  began  to  admire  him  greatly.  When 
he  painfully  surprised  a  band  which  came  secretly 
to  slay  him,  by  springing  an  ambuscade  upon  them] 
when  he  put  these  unskilful  assassins  in  irons, 
and,  reckless  of  mutterings  among  the  children  of 
the  forest,  went  to  a  ball  where  "  gentlemen  and 
ladies  "  danced  the  night  away,  the  savages  were 
sorely  perplexed.  How  to  deal  with  such  a  man 
was  a  puzzle  which  was  earnestly  debated  at  many 
a  council-fire  that  night.  So  that  next  morning, 
when  he  spoke  to  the  council — two  belts  in  his 
hands,  one  for  peace  and  one  for  war — telling  the 
chiefs  that  it  was  for  them  to  choose,  they  eagerly 
snatched  the  emblem  of  peace. 

They  consented  that  two  of  the  baffled  assassins 
should  be  put  to  death;  and  the  young  bucks  came 
forward,  squatted  on  the  ground,  covered  their 
heads  with  their  blankets,  expecting  the  tomahawk. 

Whereupon  Clark  dealt  his  master-stroke;  he 
forgave  the  guilty  men. 

Then  there  icas  rejoicing,  a  great  feast,  and  sol 
emn  vows  of  friendship. 

For  the  present  the  Illinois  country  was  at 
peace. 

But  Hamilton  could  not  allow  the  huge  prize  to 
be  taken  from  British  hands  so  easily.  Exerting 
every  energy,  he  enlisted  nearly  two  hundred 
whites  and  about  three  hundred  Indians,  dropped 
down  upon  Vincennes,  and  took  it.  This  was  in 

229 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

December,  1778.  The  winter  being  far  advanced, 
Hamilton  decided  to  wait  till  spring,  at  which  time 
he  would  retake  Kaskaskia  and  expel  the  Amer 
icans  from  the  disputed  territory.  Not  needing  his 
large  force  longer,  he  disbanded  all  but  some  eighty 
men. 

Clark  received  information  of  Hamilton's  plan, 
and  of  the  scattering  of  his  forces.  He  determined 
to  forestall  the  British. 

Gathering  together  one  hundred  and  seventy 
men,  he  set  out  from  Kaskaskia  in  February,  1779, 
for  Vincennes. 

That  winter  march  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
achievements  of  human  pluck  and  hardihood. 
When  they  struck  the  "  drowned  lands  of  the  Wa- 
bash,"  theirs  was  a  voyage  by  water  without  boats. 
They  waded  mile  after  mile,  day  after  day — the 
water  sometimes  chin-deep.  To  keep  gun  and  pow 
der  dry  they  had  to  hold  their  hands  outstretched 
above  their  heads  as  they  waded  on.  Sometimes  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  find  a  spot  of  ground  to 
rest  for  the  night.  The  rations  failed,  for  they 
could  kill  no  game  in  these  overflowed  regions. 
Just  before  they  reached  Vincennes  they  had  been 
two  days  without  food.  To  get  across  the  Wabash 
they  had  to  make  canoes.  Then  there  was  further 
wading  through  the  cold  water.  Six  miles  from 
the  town  they  camped  for  the  night  upon  a  hillock, 
hungry,  drenched,  almost  frozen.  Next  day  more 

230 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK. 


GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

wading — miles  of  it — which  well-nigh  exhausted 
the  courage  and  strength  of  the  half-famished  men. 
A  lucky  capture  of  an  Indian  canoe,  in  which  there 
was  a  quarter  of  buffalo,  some  corn,  tallow,  and 
kettles,  was  made  in  the  nick  of  time.  Hot  broth 
soon  revived  the  spirits  of  the  troop — one  quarter 
of  beef  never  having  been  made  to  go  so  far  before. 

When  Clark  led  his  men  to  the  attack,  the 
chances  all  seemed  to  be  in  favor  of  Hamilton.  He 
was  inside  a  strong  fort,  he  had  cannon,  and  there 
was  a  sufficient  garrison,  although  his  foes  outnum 
bered  him  heavily.  He  might  reasonably  expect  his 
war  parties  to  return  soon,  and  thus  the  Americans 
might  be  taken  between  two  foes.  There  was  no 
danger  of  famine,  but  his  weakness  lay  in  the  faint 
heartedness  of  his  own  men.  The  American  marks 
men  picked  off  the  British  gunners  through  the 
port-holes;  the  guns  could  not  be  served;  and  the 
British  commander  lost  hope.  When  only  six  or 
eight  of  the  garrison  had  been  disabled,  he  gave  up 
the  contest.  Clark  had  but  one  man  wounded  and 
none  killed.  Seventy-nine  prisoners  were  taken, 
and  were  paroled,  with  the  exception  of  Hamilton 
and  twenty-six  others,  who  were  sent  to  Virginia, 
where  Governor  Jefferson  put  Hamilton  in  irons. 

The  vast  Northwest  had  been  thus  won  by  a 
heroic  band  of  volunteers,  led  by  one  of  the  most 
dauntless  warriors  that  ever  risked  life  for  coun 
try.  That  Great  Britain  was  foiled,  that  the  Amer- 

231 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

leans  took  possession,  and  held  the  conquered  em 
pire  under  the  final  treaty  of  peace  made  at  Paris, 
was  due  almost  wholly  to  this  one  magnificent  pa 
triot  and  soldier,  George  Rogers  Clark. 

Randolph,  of  Eoanoke,  with  pardonable  exag 
geration,  called  the  great  Virginian  the  "  Hannibal 
of  the  West." 

The  first  fort  which  the  Americans  built  and 
held  on  the  Mississippi  was  put  there  by  Clark  at 
the  instance  of  Jefferson,  and  was  named  "  Fort 
Jefferson."  * 

1  The  closing  years  of  the  life  of  Clark  are  involved  in  gloom  and 
contradictions.  It  is  certain  that  he  became  intemperate  in  his  habits, 
that  he  lost  influence  on  the  border,  and  that  he  bitterly  resented  the 
failure  of  Virginia  to  vote  him  some  substantial  reward  for  his  serv 
ices.  When  her  messenger  came  to  his  Western  home  bringing  the 
honorary  sword  which  the  Legislature  of  his  native  State  had  awarded 
him,  it  is  said  that  he  broke  the  sword  in  a  fit  of  anger,  exclaiming  pas 
sionately  against  the  irony  of  such  a  gift. 

Clark  was  living  in  a  cabin,  opposite  Louisville,  attended  by  one  serv 
ant,  when,  either  in  an  epileptic  fit  or  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  he  fell 
into  the  fire  and  was  so  badly  burned  that  one  of  his  legs  had  to  be  am 
putated. 

His  sister,  Mrs.  William  Croghan  (mother  of  the  young  hero  of  Fort 
Stephenson),  took  him  to  her  home,  near  Louisville  (1812),  where  he 
lived,  tenderly  cared  for,  till  his  death  in  1818.  Clark  left  a  large  landed 
estate,  which  was  inherited  by  his  nephews  and  nieces. 


232 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

IN   RETIREMENT 

THE  years  1781  and  1782  were  the  most  sorrow 
ful  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  life.  Calamity  after  calamity 
fell  upon  him  with  bewildering  frequency  and 
staggering  force. 

First  came  Arnold's  invasion  in  January,  1781, 
and  the  censure  which  it  aroused.  Although  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  done  everything  that  was  in  his 
power,  his  enemies  could  not  allow  so  choice  an 
opportunity  to  pass,  and  they  made  him  suffer. 

Then,  in  June  of  the  same  year,  came  Tarleton's 
inroad,  the  narrow  escape  of  Mr.  Jefferson  from 
Monticello,  and  the  administrative  chaos  of  the 
next  few  days.1 

Again  the  Governor  was  not  to  blame;  but  again 
he  was  severely  censured. 

His  family  had  refugeed  to  Poplar  Forest,  his 
estate  in  Bedford  County;  his  Elk  Hill  plantation 
had  been  wrecked;  more  than  a  score  of  his  slaves 
were  dying  or  missing.  On  top  of  all  this  tribula 
tion  came  the  threat  of  impeachment!  To  a  man  of 

i  In    his  Jeffersonian   Calendar,  Mr.  William    Eleroy  Curtis  states 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  resigned  the  governorship.     He  did  not  resign. 

233 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

his  proud,  sensitive  nature  this  was  probably  the 
most  unkindest  cut  of  all. 

He  accepted  the  challenge,  had  himself  elected 
to  the  Legislature  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to 
meet  his  accusers  face  to  face,  won  an  easy  victory 
from  critics  who  failed  to  appear,  and  was  soothed 
by  a  vote  of  confidence  which  lauded  his  ability,  in 
tegrity,  and  rectitude.  Nevertheless,  Mr.  Jefferson 
carried  a  sore  heart  with  him  to  Poplar  Forest;  and 
neither  his  young  disciple,  Madison,  nor  his  young 
neighbor,  Monroe,  could  prevail  upon  him  to  quit 
his  retirement. 

Then,  in  April,  1781,  he  was  stricken  with  the 
grief  whose  infinite  pain  none  but  parents  realize 
— he  lost  an  infant  daughter. 

But  the  worst  of  all  was  yet  to  come.  In  Sep 
tember,  1782,  he  lost  his  wife. 

This  cherished  companion  had  suffered  in  sym 
pathy  with  her  husband  during  these  trying  years; 
had  felt  the  terror  of  sudden  danger  when  the  Brit 
ish  raided  her  home  and  forced  her  into  flight  with 
a  babe  in  her  arms. 

In  May,  1782,  she  gave  birth  to  her  sixth  child, 
and  was  never  well  again. 

How  tenderly  her  husband  nursed  her,  how  de 
votedly  he  stayed  with  her  night  and  day  during 
the  months  of  her  decline,  what  anguish  he  suffered 
when  all  hope  was  gone,  how  he  fainted  away  as 
he  was  led  from  the  room  after  the  closing  scene, 

234 


IN   RETIREMENT 

how  he  was  as  one  distracted  for  weeks  and  weeks, 
and  how  he  sunk  into  a  melancholy  from  which 
nothing  seemed  able  to  arouse  him — no  words  could 
describe  without  a  parade  of  a  grief  which  is  best 
treated  by  the  silence  which  respects  it  as  sacred. 

On  her  death-bed  Mrs.  Jefferson  asked  her  hus 
band  not  to  give  their  children  a  stepmother,  and 
he  promised. 

Forty-four  years  later,  when  he  himself  had 
finished  the  long  walk,  there  were  found  in  the  se 
cret  drawer  of  his  private  cabinet  locks  of  hair  and 
other  souvenirs  of  his  wife  and  of  each  of  his  chil 
dren,  those  living  and  those  dead.  The  envelopes 
which  contained  these  were  all  marked,  in  his  beau 
tiful  writing,  with  words  of  identity  and  endear 
ment,  and  these  envelopes  had  the  appearance  of 
having  been  often  handled. 

The  loved  and  loving  wife  had  given  birth  to 
six  children  during  a  brief  married  life  of  ten  years. 
Not  robust  at  any  time,  the  repeated  ordeal  of  ma 
ternity  sapped  her  constitution.  Nature's  warnings 
were  not  understood,  and,  with  the  sixth  child, 
there  remained  at  length  no  reserve  of  strength. 

Amid  the  resurrection  of  so  many  old  publica 
tions,  why  is  it  that  no  trump  awakes  to  new  life 
Jefferson's  Notes  on  Virginia? 

Strike  from  it  the  dry  statistics,  cull  its  choice 
passages,  illustrate  it  with  scenery  and  portraits, 

235 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

preface  it  with  a  biographical  chapter  by  way  of 
introduction,  and  the  result  would  be  a  volume 
which  would  delight  all  lovers  of  literature.  Some 
of  its  passages  are  beautiful  as  descriptions  of 
natural  scenery;  some  are  valuable  as  studies  of 
political  and  economical  problems;  the  chapter  on 
the  customs,  peculiarities,  and  race  characteristics 
of  the  Indians  is  deeply  interesting;  and  its  insight 
into  the  negro,  as  a  man  and  an  issue,  is  profound. 
The  comments  on  government,  on  religious  intoler 
ance,  on  militarism,  finance,  education,  slavery,  and 
kindred  subjects  are  in  all  respects  worthy  of  the 
author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  Notes  on  Virginia  were  written  in  re 
sponse  to  twenty-three  questions  addressed  to  him 
by  De  Marbois,  secretary  of  the  French  Legation 
at  Philadelphia,  who  was  instructed  by  his  Govern 
ment  to  secure  information  as  to  the  resources, 
etc.,  of  the  colonies.  It  was  during  his  retirement, 
in  1781,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  did  most  of  the  work  on 
the  Notes.  In  the  winter  of  1782  he  added  to  them 
somewhat,  and  in  the  advertisement  dated  1787  he 
regrets  that  some  of  the  questions  were  answered 
imperfectly,  but  says  that  he  could  not  apologize 
without  going  into  "  circumstances  which  would 
open  old  wounds,  which  have  bled  enough." 

From  the  dates  given,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
Notes  were  the  leisure  work  of  the  period  of  his 
greatest  sorrow. 

236 


CHAPTER    XXIV 

IN   CONGRESS 

IN  November,  1782,  Congress  unanimously  and 
without  a  single  adverse  remark  chose  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to  Prance.  The 
summons  came  to  him  at  a  time  when  the  first  pas 
sionate  grief  had  spent  itself.  Monticello  was  al 
most  insupportable.  Everything  there  reminded 
him  of  his  loss.  To  remain  there  meant  morbid 
brooding  and  apathy.  Of  all  things,  he  most  needed 
something  to  rouse  him,  to  turn  his  thoughts  out 
ward.  This  call  to  duty  was  a  blessing.  By  a 
natural  revulsion  of  feeling,  he  responded  promptly, 
accepting  the  appointment.  He  made  all  the  neces 
sary  arrangements  for  leaving  Monticello,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  Philadelphia  for  instructions.  While 
waiting  for  a  favorable  chance  to  embark  news 
came,  February,  1783,  that  the  preliminaries  of 
peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
had  already  been  signed.  There  was  no  longer  any 
need  of  his  services  in  Europe,  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
returned  home. 

But  he  had  shown  his  willingness  to  reenter 
237 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

public  life,  and  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  elected 
him  to  Congress. 

A  quorum  to  do  business  did  not  assemble  at 
Annapolis  till  about  the  middle  of  December,  and 
Mr.  Jefferson  left  it  on  the  7th  day  of  May,  but  dur 
ing  that  period  he  did  a  great  deal  of  important 
work. 

General  Washington  came  in  person  to  lay  down 
his  commission,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  arranged  the 
ceremonial  for  that  historic  occasion. 

The  answer  which  the  President  of  Congress 
made  to  Washington's  address  is  said  to  have  been 
written  by  Jefferson. 

As  chairman  of  the  Grand  Committee  on  the 
Treasury  Department,  he  reported  a  plan  for  the 
reorganization  of  that  branch  of  the  service,  and 
Congress  adopted  his  suggestion.  In  conjunction 
with  Gouverneur  Morris,  he  originated  our  present 
money  system.  In  lieu  of  the  English  pounds,  shil 
lings,  and  pence,  the  decimal  count  was  proposed. 
Jefferson  differed  from  Morris  as  to  the  details,  be 
lieving  that  the  unit  suggested  by  that  gentleman 
was  too  minute  and  laborious  for  common  use — it 
being  the  fourteen  hundred  and  fortieth  part  of  a 
dollar.  Mr.  Jefferson  proposed  the  dollar  as  the 
unit  of  value,  and  favored  three  other  coins,  the  ten- 
dollar  gold  piece,  the  silver  dime,  and  the  copper 
cent.  After  a  full  discussion  of  both  plans,  Con 
gress  preferred  the  system  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  he 

238 


IN   CONGRESS 

then  became  the  father  of  the  dollar,  which  was  the 
centerpiece  of  the  system. 

It  was  at  this  session  that  Virginia,  in  the  lof 
tiest  spirit  of  patriotism,  ceded  to  the  General  Gov 
ernment  the  vast  Northwestern  territory.  Her 
pioneers  had  first  gained  a  footing  there,  her  states 
men  had  first  realized  the  necessity  for  this  west 
ward  expansion,  and  her  soldiers  had  held  it  in  de 
fiance  of  Indians  and  English. 

But  bickerings  and  jealousies  had  arisen;  and 
to  put  an  end  to  the  dangers  threatened  by  these, 
Virginia  voluntarily  surrendered  her  empire.  A 
nobler  peace-offering  the  world  never  saw. 

For  the  temporary  government  of  this  huge  do 
main,  Mr.  Jefferson  drew  up  the  famous  "  Ordinance 
of  the  Northwestern  Territory,"  in  which  he  incor 
porated  a  clause  prohibiting  slavery  after  the  year 
1800. 

The  Southern  States  were  not  quite  prepared  to 
outlaw  their  property  in  the  empire  they  were  giv 
ing  away,  and  they  defeated  this  clause. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  names  and  boundaries  for  the 
new  States  to  be  carved  out  of  the  territory  were 
rejected,  also  his  provision  that  the  new  States 
should  "  admit  no  person  to  be  a  citizen  who  holds 
any  hereditary  titles."  With  these  changes  his 
plans  were  adopted. 

It  was  in  this  celebrated  Ordinance  of  the 
Northwestern  Territory  that  the  first  suggestion 

239 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

of  a  plan  for  the  admission  of  future  States  ap 
peared. 

He  had  the  honor  of  reporting  back  to  Congress 
from  committee  the  treaty  of  peace,  in  which  Great 
Britain  formally  recognized  the  independence  of 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  written  the  Declaration 
seven  years  before. 

The  great  defect  of  the  Confederation  was  the 
lack  of  a  distinct  and  separate  executive.  To  sup 
ply  this  need  Jefferson  proposed  a  committee  of  one 
from  each  State.  This  plural  executive  was  tried, 
but  the  experiment  was  a  failure.  The  committee 
proved  to  be  but  a  smaller  Congress,  torn  by  the 
same  factions. 


240 


CHAPTER    XXV 

MINISTER  TO   FRANCE 

ON  May  7,  1784,  Congress  resolved  to  send  a 
third  minister  plenipotentiary  to  Europe  to  assist 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  John  Adams  in  negotiating 
commercial  treaties.  Mr.  Jefferson  received  this 
appointment,  and  on  the  llth  May,  1784,  he  set 
out  to  join  his  colleagues,  who  were  already  in  Eu 
rope.  Going  by  way  of  Philadelphia  to  get  his 
daughter  Martha,  he  visited  the  New  England 
States,  to  familiarize  himself  with  those  matters  of 
commerce  with  which  his  duties  would  require  him 
to  deal.  On  July  5th  he  sailed  from  Boston,  reached 
England  after  a  voyage  which  was  uneventful,  and, 
crossing  the  Channel,  arrived  in  Paris  on  the  6th  of 
August. 

•  •••••• 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Jefferson  found  a 
great  deal  of  enjoyment  in  his  new  office.  It  re 
moved  him  from  Monticello  at  a  time  when  home 
had  no  charms.  Old  ties,  and  the  dearest,  had  been 
broken;  the  wound  was  fresh,  and  amid  those  scenes 
it  would  be  longest  in  healing. 

In  Paris  there  was  everything  to  divert  his 
17  241 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

thoughts  from  the  one  subject  which  haunted  him 
at  Monticello.  Besides,  his  environment  was  the 
most  congenial  he  had  ever  known. 

A  scholar,  he  could  mingle  every  hour  of  the 
day  with  savants-  a  freethinker,  he  could  exchange 
ideas  with  those  who  dared  to  question  all  dogmas; 
a  lover  of  art,  music,  and  social  entertainment,  he 
could  expand  himself  rapturously  in  the  most  ele 
gant  city  in  the  world.  No  need  now,  to  go  to 
church  on  Sundays  just  to  soothe  the  conscience  of 
pious  neighbors.  He  could  visit  some  Parisian  Ed 
mund  Randolph,  play  chess  all  day  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  never  have  a  strait-laced  Madam  Randolph 
rebuke  his  wickedness  by  refusing  to  appear. 

In  Virginia,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be 
all  things  to  all  men — more  particularly  if  they 
were  Virginians.  A  boor  could  not  be  treated  as  a 
boor;  he  could  not  be  frankly  told  that  between 
himself  and  his  host  there  was  nothing  in  common, 
and  that  it  would  be  pleasanter  for  both  if  the  boor 
would  jog  along  to  the  cross-roads  tavern,  where  he 
would  find  a  choice  assortment  of  fellow  boors. 

Life  in  Paris  was  to  a  sensitive,  cultured,  some 
what  dainty  man  like  Jefferson  what  freedom  would 
be  to  the  caged  bird.  He  reveled  in  his  liberty. 
Never  was  he  so  much  at  ease,  so  much  at  home 
amid  his  surroundings. 

He  settled  himself  in  handsome  quarters,  and 
began  to  spend  his  money  on  good  living  in  a  man- 

242 


MINISTER  TO  FRANCE 

ner  which  threatened  deficits,  in  spite  of  minute 
entries  in  account-books.  Elegant  furniture  and 
appointments  generally,  a  staff  of  servants,  of 
course,  equipages,  of  course,  and  epicurean  winings 
and  dinings.  Flocking  to  him  with  joyful  greet 
ings  came  Lafayette  and  other  Frenchmen  who 
had  known  him  in  America.  They  introduced  him 
at  once  into  a  social  sphere  which  received  him  at 
his  true  worth.  There  was  no  period  of  probation, 
no  anxious  waiting  for  the  verdict  of  the  social 
petit  jury,  whose  findings  neither  gods  nor  men  can 
always  with  certainty  predict. 

When  a  member  of  the  great  Noailles  family 
could  vouch  for  him;  when  Dillon  and  Biron  and 
D'Estaing  and  Kochambeau  knew  exactly  what 
he  was;  when  De  Chastellux  could  tell  of  the  Ital 
ian  villa-home,  which  surpassed  anything  he  had 
seen  in  America — the  Monticello  where  he  had  en 
joyed  hospitality,  admired  the  owner's  pleasure- 
grounds,  stood  by  when  the  master  fed  his  deer  in 
the  park,  and  gazed  appreciatingly  over  lawns, 
gardens,  orchards,  fields — it  was  a  foregone  conclu 
sion  that  French  aristocracy  should  welcome  Jeffer 
son  as  a  peer. 

"  You  replace  Dr.  Franklin,  I  believe,"  said  the 
grandee,  Vergennes,  when  the  new  minister  was 
presented  at  the  Foreign  Office. 

"I  succeed  him;  no  one  could  replace  him." 

Now,  above  all  things,  a  Frenchman  loves  a  neat 
243 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

turn  of  speech.  The  artist  in  words  is  to  him  as 
true  to  art  as  the  chiseler  of  exquisite  statues,  and 
this  repartee  of  Jefferson — innocent  little  thing! — 
not  only  tickled  the  ears  of  all  Paris,  but  lives  yet 
in  all  the  biographies. 

Immediately  upon  his  arrival  in  Paris,  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  had  gone  to  Passy  and  paid  his  respects  to 
Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  then  in  very  bad  health.  Be 
tween  these  two  illustrious  patriots  there  had  al 
ways  existed  the  most  cordial  relations,  and  these 
were  never  interrupted. 

John  Adams  was  summoned  from  Holland,  and 
the  three  representatives  of  the  infant  republic  pro 
posed  the  form  of  a  treaty  of  commerce  which  they 
proposed  to  offer  to  the  nations.  In  spirit,  this 
document  was  eminently  just,  humane,  and  liberal. 
The  only  monarch  who  would  enter  into  these  cor 
dial  relations  with  the  infant  republic  was  "  old 
Frederick  of  Prussia." 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1785  that  Dr.  Franklin 
returned  home,  and  Congress  made  Mr.  Jefferson 
minister  to  France. 

Mr.  Adams  had  been  appointed  to  a  similar  po 
sition  in  England,  and  in  March,  1786,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  went  over  to  London,  at  the  request  of  Mr. 
Adams. 

They  hoped  to  be  able  to  negotiate  a  commer 
cial  treaty  with  Great  Britain.  Their  efforts  were 
fruitless.  The  King  turned  his  back  upon  them, 

244 


MINISTER   TO   FRANCE 

and  the  ministers  would  not  even  discuss  the  treaty. 
As  long  as  he  lived  Mr.  Jefferson  remembered  the 
studied  indignities  which  were  put  upon  him  in 
England,  and  if  any  insult  can  be  said  to  have  ever 
rankled  in  his  breast  it  was  this. 

Wounded,  disgusted,  indignant,  he  ceased  to 
humiliate  himself  in  the  attempt  to  get  the  English 
minister  interested  in  American  commerce,  and  he 
set  forth  upon  a  tour  of  the  historical  scenes  and 
"  show-places." 

He  and  John  Adams  went  together,  and  they 
seem  to  have  enjoyed  thoroughly  this  feature  of 
their  trip.  Great  palaces,  magnificent  parks,  noted 
battle-fields,  Westminster  Abbey,  Oxford,  Wood 
stock,  Shakespeare's  cottage,  they  admired  or  rev 
erenced  as  became  appreciative  strangers.  On  the 
battle-field  of  Worcester,  where  Cromwell  had 
crowned  his  great  career,  Mr.  Adams  felt  so  much 
inspired  by  his  feelings  that  he  fired  off  an  extem 
poraneous  speech  to  some  rustics  who  had  come  to 
stare  at  the  tourists.  Mr.  Adams,  who  kept  a 
diary,  thought  his  little  address  made  a  happy  im 
pression  on  the  minds  of  these  natives.  WThat  the 
rustics  actually  did  think  of  Adams  and  his  speech 
can  not  now  be  known.  Few  rustics  keep  diaries. 

As  one  would  naturally  suppose,  the  matchless 
gardens  of  our  mother  country  fascinated  Mr. 
Jefferson.  He  went  into  no  raptures  over  historic 
spots  which  appeal  to  ardent  imaginations,  peo- 

245 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

pling  them  with  the  heroic*  dead  of  ages  gone,  but 
the  beauties  of  nature  and  of  art,  actually  dis 
played  before  his  eyes,  held  him  in  their  spell  as 
strongly  as  they  ever  held  painter  or  poet.  The 
grandeur  or  the  loveliness  of  a  landscape,  the  ex 
quisite  proportions  of  a  building,  the  varied  at 
tractions  of  a  garden,  had  power  to  move  him  al 
most  to  intoxication.  So  rapt  would  become  his 
countenance,  so  oblivious  would  he  be  to  the  flight 
of  time,  as  he  contemplated  the  objects  of  his  ad 
miration,  that  less  enthusiastic  souls  often  won 
dered  if  he  were  not  demented. 


246 


CHAPTER    XXVI 

THE   BARBARY   PIRATES 

ONE  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  reasons  for  going  to 
London  was  that  the  ambassador  of  Tripoli  was 
there  ready  to  negotiate  with  the  United  States  in 
reference  to  certain  Americans  who  had  been 
captured  on  the  sea  and  carried  into  Mohammedan 
bondage. 

For  Tripoli  was  a  "  Barbary  pirate "  state, 
which  still  kept  up,  on  a  limited  scale,  the  hoary 
feud  between  Cross  and  Crescent.  Christian  na 
tions  had  long  since  lost  their  crusading  habit,  and 
wars  were  not  being  waged  any  more  because  of 
difference  of  creed.  Christians  who  spent  so  much 
of  their  time  fighting  fellow  Christians  were  not 
disposed  to  harass  infidel  nations  about  articles  of 
faith. 

But  the  Mohammedans  had  not  wholly  aban 
doned  their  ancient  ways;  hence,  in  quarters  where 
they  were  strongest,  they  continued  to  do  as  was 
done  by  both  Cross  and  Crescent  in  the  days  of  the 
crusades — they  spoiled  the  Egyptians. 

The  Egyptian  who  fulfilled  the  Scripture  in  the 
247 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

one  case  was  the  Mohammedan;  in  the  other,  he 
was  the  Christian.  Lawful  authority  in  the  one 
case  was  derived  from  the  Jewish  Testament;  in 
the  other  from  the  Arab  Koran.  In  both  cases  the 
law  and  gospel  is  strongly  against  the  Egyptian. 
Most  historians  contentedly  describe  these  Moham 
medans  as  "  Barbary  pirates."  In  the  sense  that 
the  crusaders  were  pirates,  or  that  Drake  and  Haw 
kins  were  pirates,  they  were  pirates.  They  were  not 
so  in  any  other  sense. 

From  the  days  of  Godfrey,  Bohemund,  Tancred, 
and  Richard,  down  to  those  of  Don  John  of  Aus 
tria,  Christian  princes  had  hurled  themselves  upon 
the  Mussulman,  doing  him  injury  to  the  full  extent 
of  their  power.  The  Mohammedan  retaliated  when 
ever  he  could.  At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  crusading  cus 
toms,  so  far  as  the  followers  of  Mohammed  were 
concerned,  made  itself  manifest  in  the  capture,  by 
the  various  "  Barbary  powers,"  of  all  such  Chris 
tian  vessels  as  were  unable  to  prevent  it. 

To  a  religious  world  which  had  forgotten  all 
about  the  hoary  pledges  to  redeem  the  sepulcher 
of  Christ,  and  which  had  no  distinct  recollection  of 
the  wholesale  manner  in  which  the  Christian  West 
had  formerly  despoiled  the  Mohammedan  East, 
this  survival  of  barbaric  practises  was  most  irk 
some  and  odious.  It  was  what  would  be  classed  in 
historical  literature  as  an  anachronism.  Therefore, 

248 


THE   BARBARY   PIRATES 

it  could  not  be  too  severely  condemned.  "  Barbary 
pirates  "  was  a  name  quite  good  enough  for  heathen 
who  continued  to  do  in  the  eighteenth  century 
what  had  been  correct  enough  in  the  sixteenth,  or 
even  in  the  seventeenth,  but  which  was  now  clearly 
out  of  date. 

But  the  Mussulman  was  a  great  fighter,  and,  to 
keep  him  from  continuing  the  crusading  feud,  the 
kings  of  Europe  bought  peace  from  the  infidel  at 
a  stated  price. 

To  this  inglorious  end  had  come  the  oaths 
sworn  and  armies  marshaled  to  break  the  power  of 
Mohammed,  and  redeem  the  grave  of  Christ. 

Now,  the  infant  republic  of  the  United  States, 
not  versed  in  the  ways  of  diplomacy,  had  paid  no 
tribute  to  the  "  Barbary  pirates."  The  conse 
quences  ripened  early.  In  the  spring  of  1785  the 
American  brig  Betsy  was  pounced  upon  and  taken 
to  Morocco.  Spain  was  then  our  friend,  and  Spain 
urgently  requested  the  Sultan  of  Morocco  to  re 
lease  the  prisoners  without  ransom.  Even  pirates 
have  their  ideas  of  suavity  and  etiquette;  the  Sul 
tan  had  no  wish  to  affront  a  tribute-paying  Chris 
tian  like  Spain.  Besides,  the  United  States  was, 
perhaps,  ignorant  of  the  rules  and  had  not  intended 
to  violate  any  of  the  customs  of  the  Mediterranean. 
Therefore  the  Sultan  handsomely  complimented 
the  infant  republic  with  the  liberty  of  the  Betsy's 
crew.  No;  he  would  not  exact  money  this  time. 

249 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Accept  these  captures  with  the  compliments  of  the 
Sultan.    But  hereafter !! 

This  hereafter  soon  came.  Three  more  crews, 
not  knowing  the  law,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  in 
fidels,  and  the  three  captains  wailed,  beseeching 
Mr.  Jefferson  to  get  them  out. 

This  matter  caused  Mr.  Jefferson  a  great  deal  of 
labor  and  annoyance.  While  in  England  he  had  in 
terviews  and  correspondence  with  the  Tripolitan 
ambassador,  but  the  difference  between  the  ran 
som  demanded  and  the  sum  Mr.  Jefferson  was  au 
thorized  to  offer  was  so  great  that  nothing  came 
of  the  tedious,  protracted  negotiations. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  profoundly  dissatisfied  with 
the  relations  which  existed  between  Christian  Eu 
rope  and  these  "  Barbary  pirates."  To  behold 
Great  Britain,  France,  Holland,  Spain,  Naples,  the 
two  Sicilies,  Venice,  and  Portugal  bargaining  with 
Mohammedan  states  for  peace  at  so  much  per  an 
num  was  humiliating. 

He  believed  that  war — an  issue  of  arms  upon 
principle  like  that — would  not  only  be  justifiable 
but  cheaper  in  the  long  run.  Therefore,  he  pro 
posed  a  plan  by  which  the  nuisance  could  be  abated. 
Let  the  Christians  concerned  agree  among  them 
selves  to  furnish  pro  rata  a  fleet  whose  special  mis 
sion  it  should  be  to  either  compel  the  Barbary  pow 
ers  to  sign  treaties  of  peace  without  exacting  sub 
sidies  or  to  fight  them  off  the  seas. 

250 


THE   BARBARY   PIRATES 

Mr.  Jefferson's  plan  was  the  conception  of  a 
statesman,  and  met  with  favor;  but,  unfortunately, 
Congress  could  not  back  him  with  the  frigate 
which,  under  the  terms  of  his  program,  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  furnish.  So  the 
plan  did  not  materialize. 

Turning  from  historians  to  diplomats,  and  con 
trasting  the  language  used  in  the  one  case  and  in 
the  other,  we  become  interested,  if  not  edified. 

The  Emperor  of  Morocco  was  the  chief  pirate 
of  all  "  Barbary  pirates  ";  and  yet,  when  President 
Washington,  in  1791,  had  occasion  to  send  a  letter 
to  this  Emperor,  it  was  addressed  "  Great  and  mag 
nanimous  friend."  It  seems  that  the  old  Emperor 
had  recently  died,  and  that  President  Washington 
was  writing  to  the  son  of  the  deceased — the  father 
and  son  both  being  pirates,  mind  you. 

Washington  says  to  the  young  Emperor:  "The 
death  of  the  late  Emperor,  your  father,  and  our 
friend  of  glorious  memory,  etc.  Keceive,  great  and 
good  friend,  my  sincere  sympathy  with  you  in  that 
loss"! 

Oh,  what  rare  pirates  are  these!  Who  wouldn't 
turn  pirate  to  win  such  a  friend  as  Washington, 
and  have  him  pose  as  mourner?  Let  us  read  on: 
"  Permit  me  to  express  the  satisfaction  with  which 
I  learn  the  accession  of  so  worthy  a  successor  to 
the  imperial  throne  of  Morocco,  and  offer  you  the 
homage  of  my  sincere  congratulations  "!!! 

251 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Angels  and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us!  The 
great  George  Washington  holding  this  kind  of  lan- 
gauage  to  a  robber!  Permit  me  to  offer  the  homage! 
Congratulations  that  are  sincere! 

Read  on:  "  May  the  days  of  your  Majesty's  life 
be  many  and  glorious  "! 

President  Washington  then  proceeds  to  hope, 
earnestly  and  somewhat  humbly,  that  the  young 
pirate  will  treat  the  United  States  as  liberally  as 
the  old  dead  pirate  had  done. 

And  the  missive  winds  up  with  an  astonishing 
prayer  that  the  "  God  whom  we  both  adore  "  (we 
pirates)  "  will  bless  your  imperial  Majesty  with 
long  life,  health,  and  success"! 

Blessed  pirates! 

At  the  close  of  this  amazing  letter  and  aston 
ishing  prayer  are  signed  the  names  of  George 
Washington,  President,  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  Sec 
retary  of  State! 

Verily,  diplomacy  has  ways  that  are  peculiar 
and  language  which  is  queer! 

And  when  President  Washington  transmitted  to 
the  Senate  that  treaty  with  Tripoli,  wrhich  the  Sen 
ate  ratified,  the  introductory  sentence  ran  in  these 
words: 

"  As  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  not 
in  any  sense  founded  on  the  Christian  religion,"  etc. 

This  to  soothe  the  Mohammedan  pirate  and  to 
keep  his  price  within  the  bounds  of  moderation! 

252 


THE    BARBARY   PIRATES 

In  view  of  such  facts  as  these  it  might  be  well 
for  historical  authors  to  discard  the  title  of  "  Bar- 
bary  pirates,"  and  to  put  upon  Washington's  great 
friend,  of  "  glorious  memory/'  a  name  which  would 
reflect  greater  credit — upon  Washington. 

As  well  as  another  could  Washington  resort  to 
the  wiles  of  diplomacy  when  occasion  demanded. 
Hence,  he  could  court  the  Mussulman  with  mean 
ingless  blandishments,  and  bide  the  time  when 
the  sword  could  cut  this  particularly  difficult 
knot. 

During  his  second  administration,  Washington 
believed  that  his  country  was  strong  enough  to  defy 
the  Barbary  powers,  and  he  called  upon  Congress 
for  half  a  dozen  modest  little  battle-ships,  to  be 
used  in  the  Mediterranean.  After  the  usual 
lengthened  debate,  Congress  did  finally  vote  the 
vessels. 

Nothing  further  was  done  until  Jefferson  him 
self  was  President.  We  shall  then  see  how  this 
most  tenacious  of  men  carried  out  his  original  plan 
of  bringing  the  Mussulman  to  realize  that  the  cru 
sades  were  over. 

This  recommendation  which  Washington  made 
in  his  message  was  based  upon  the  report  which 
Mr.  Jefferson,  as  Secretary  of  State,  had  made  to 
Congress. 

That  body  having  applied  to  him  in  the  matter 
of  the  navy,  he  advised  the  building  of  a  sufficient 

253 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

number  of  vessels  to  protect  our  commerce  in  the 
Mediterranean.  On  account  of  suggestions  like 
those  he  made  in  Paris  and  during  his  secretary 
ship,  John  Adams  called  Jefferson  the  father  of  the 
American  navy. 


254 


CHAPTER    XXVII 

HIS   SERVICES  ABROAD 

WHAT  did  Mr.  Jefferson  do  for  his  country  while 
minister  to  France? 

To  answer  fully  would  certainly  be  tedious  and 
would  probably  be  useless.  Whale-oil,  salted  fish, 
tobacco,  rice,  and  salted  pork  are  important  items 
in  commerce,  having  much  to  do  with  the  balance 
of  trade  and  the  prosperity  of  individuals  and  of  na 
tions;  but  when  the  reader  is  assured  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  struggled  long,  hard,  and  with  partial  suc 
cess  to  prevail  upon  France  to  be  lenient  writh  us 
upon  those  subjects,  he  has  perhaps  learned  as 
much  as  he  cares  to  know. 

The  grip  of  the  protectionist,  the  monopolist, 
was  almost  irresistible  on  the  France  of  that  day, 
as  it  is  on  America  now,  and  Mr.  Jefferson's  task 
was  well-nigh  hopeless.  Yet,  by  great  perseverance 
and  the  bringing  to  bear  of  the  pressure  of  Lafay 
ette  and  other  personal  friends,  he  did  manage  to 
loosen  the  iron  bands  a  little.  Whale-oil  and  salt 
fish  from  New  England  began  to  have  better  treat 
ment,  so  did  rice  from  the  South.  For  tobacco  he 
was  not  able  to  do  so  much,  that  article  of  com 
merce  being  in  the  control  of  the  Farmers-General, 

255 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

a  corporation  which  held  France  by  the  throat. 
The  sum  and  substance  of  it  all  was  that  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  succeeded  in  getting  the  United  States  treated 
as  the  most-favored  nation.  France  not  only 
yielded  to  him  better  trade  relations  than  she  had 
ever  conceded  to  Dr.  Franklin,  but  she  agreed  to 
put  her  consular  arrangements  with  us  on  a  far 
more  satisfactory  basis  than  Dr.  Franklin  had 
agreed  to  accept. 

In  short,  Mr.  Jefferson  accomplished  no  mar 
vels,  but  he  did  everything  that  was  possible. 

Besides  his  public  duties,  he  was  kept  busy  at 
tending  to  various  other  matters  which  one  of  our 
national  representatives  at  a  foreign  court  would 
now  disdain.  Mr.  Choate,  who  takes  care  of  our 
dignity  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  would  probably 
refuse  to  buy  lamps  for  an  American  friend,  as  Mr. 
Jefferson  cheerfully  did  for  Richard  Henry  Lee; 
and  Mr.  Charlemagne  Tower,  who  emphasizes  and 
illustrates  our  national  majesty  at  Berlin,  would 
hardly  make  the  rounds  of  the  jewelers'  shops  to  se 
lect  a  pair  of  spectacles  for  an  acquaintance,  as 
Mr.  Jefferson  did  for  Bellini. 

Things  were  different  then;  and  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  was  often  seen  under  conditions  not  more  im 
pressive  than  Chief-Justice  John  Marshall's  when 
he  selected  cabbages  in  the  Richmond  market,  and 
walked  home  bearing  a  plebeian  burden  of  chickens 
and  eggs,  ham  and  sausages. 

256 


HIS    SERVICES   ABROAD 

Fancy  a  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  going  along  the  streets,  from 
the  market,  holding  a  bunch  of  squalling  chickens 
in  his  hand  now,  will  you? 

Wasting  no  thought  on  his  dignity,  Thomas 
Jefferson  was  happy  in  attending  to  the  wants  of 
his  old  friends.  He  would  ransack  the  bookstores 
to  get  rare  volumes  for  George  Wythe  and  James 
Monroe  and  James  Madison;  for  some  other  corre 
spondent  he  would  buy  a  new  tongue  for  the  harp 
sichord;  to  another  he  would  send  a  case  of  wine; 
and  he  went  to  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  procure 
for  Mr.  Madison  the  best  watch  that  could  be  made. 

The  State  of  Virginia  wished  to  have  a  marble 
bust  of  Washington,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  selected  the 
sculptor  (Houdon),  made  the  contract,  and  con 
ducted  the  correspondence  with  all  the  parties  con 
cerned.  A  new  State-house  was  being  built  in 
Richmond;  it  delighted  the  minister  to  furnish 
plans  and  specifications,  copied  from  a  Roman  re 
main  which  fascinated  this  amateur  architect. 

In  the  course  of  a  friendly  discussion  with 
Buffon,  the  French  naturalist,  as  to  the  respective 
sizes  of  animals  in  Europe  and  America,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  resolved  to  bring  forward,  as  proof  of  his  the 
ory,  the  skeleton  of  a  moose.  He  wrote  to  General 
John  Sujlivan,  of  Maine,  to  get  him  the  skin  and 
skeleton  of  a  moose  and  to  ship  it  to  France. 

General  Sullivan  sallied  forth  on  a  winter  cam- 
18  257 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

paign,  accompanied  by  a  troop  of  hunters,  marched 
through  the  snow,  found  a  herd,  killed  a  moose, 
cut  a  road  twenty  miles  through  the  wilderness, 
and  had  the  carcass  dragged  home  by  hand.  Hav 
ing  got  the  animal  to  his  home,  General  Sullivan 
had  to  take  off  the  skin,  clean  the  bones,  pack  the 
parts  wanted,  etc. 

In  due  time  Mr.  Jefferson  got  the  argument  he 
needed  for  the  convincing  of  Buffon.  He  also  got  a 
bill  of  expenses  which  amounted  to  two  hundred 
and  twenty  dollars.  The  Count  de  Buffon  hand 
somely  confessed  himself  conquered. 

All  Americans  who  happened  to  need  help  of 
any  kind  learned  the  way  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  house 
in  Paris. 

Lion-hearted  Paul  Jones,  seeking  justice  from 
Denmark,  which  had  given  up  to  England  certain 
prizes  won  from  the  Mistress  of  the  Seas  by  the 
dauntless  Jones,  appealed  to  Jefferson,  not  in  vain. 

Ledyard,  the  Connecticut  traveler,  found  in  our 
minister  a  friend  who  sympathized  with  him.  From 
Mr.  Jefferson  he  obtained  money  and  the  introduc 
tion  to  people  of  influence. 

He  zealously  aided  all  Americans  who  were  in 
distress — those  who  were  prisoners  in  the  hands  of 
the  "  Barbary  pirates,"  those  who  were  in  trouble 
because  of  violations  of  French  maritime  regula 
tions,  and  those  who  were  simply  short  of  money. 

He  kept  American  colleges  informed  on  the  sub- 
258 


HIS    SERVICES    ABROAD 

jects  of  scientific  discovery  and  speculation,  curious 
books,  and  learned  theories.  Agricultural  societies 
he  supplied  with  new  seeds,  plants,  nuts,  and  val 
uable  suggestions.  The  heavy  upland  rice  which 
became  such  a  blessing  to  Georgia  and  South  Caro 
lina  was  grown  from  seed  which  he  brought  away 
from  Italy  in  his  overcoat  pocket.  The  glorious 
protective  principle  made  it  a  crime  to  export  the 
rough  rice  from  its  native  home,  and  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  became  a  smug 
gler.  The  world  his  country,  to  do  good  his  relig 
ion,  he,  like  Thomas  Paine,  carried  his  benevolence 
wherever  he  went;  and,  just  as  we  find  him  making 
efforts  to  confer  benefits  upon  Americans,  we  see 
him  doing  the  same  thing  for  Europe.  The  pecan- 
nut  is  one  of  our  great  natural  sources  of  wealth 
— a  fact  that  we,  even  at  this  day,  are  only  begin 
ning  to  realize.  Mr.  Jefferson  appreciated  it  more 
than  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  he  introduced  it  into 
France,  James  Madison  sending  him  the  nuts.  He 
was  interested  in  all  sorts  of  useful  inventions,  and 
his  correspondents  at  home  were  kept  informed  of 
whatever  he  learned.  From  HerschePs  discovery 
of  double  stars  to  Watt's  success  with  the  steam- 
engine,  from  the  new  French  theory  about  the  rain 
bow  to  the  screw-propeller  which  a  Parisian  had 
just  invented,  he  was  on  the  alert,  quick  to  inves 
tigate  and  to  report  results  to  his  friends  across  the 
water. 

259 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

James  Bruce,  the  celebrated  traveler,  explored 
Africa  in  search  of  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  escap 
ing  dangers  of  every  description — fever,  drowning, 
starvation,  attack  of  wild  man  and  wild  beast, 
poisonous  serpent  and  ravenous  crocodile — to  come 
home  at  last  and  meet  death  in  a  tumble  down  the 
steps  of  his  own  house. 

Something  like  the  irony  of  this  fate  befell  Mr. 
Jefferson.  While  casually  strolling  with  a  friend 
one  day  near  Paris,  this  athlete,  who  could  master 
the  spirited  horse  and  the  frail  boat  and  escape  un 
hurt  from  a  headlong  gallop  down  his  mountain,  or 
from  a  daring  venture  across  the  swollen  current 
of  a  mountain  stream,  fell  to  the  ground  and  broke 
his  wrist. 

Awkward  but  stoical,  he  grasped  the  wounded 
right  hand  with  his  left,  made  no  sign,  and  contin 
ued  the  stroll  and  the  conversation.  That  evening 
he  made  the  usual  entries  in  those  account-books, 
using  the  left  hand.  But  the  injury  was  serious. 
It  gave  him  great  pain,  and  he  never  recovered  the 
full  use  of  the  hand.  Thus  writing  became  very 
laborious  to  him,  and  much  of  it  from  that  time  was 
done  with  his  left  hand. 

Mr.  Jefferson  states  that  he  continued  his  vio 
lin  practise  up  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolu 
tion.  His  biographer  Henry  S.  Randall  thinks  he 
did  not  entirely  quit  fiddling  until  this  fracture  of 
his  wrist. 

260 


HIS    SERVICES   ABROAD 

In  spite  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  positive  statement 
that  he  "  never  took  up  "  his  violin  after  the  Revo 
lution  broke  out,  Mr.  Randall  carries  him  on  to  the 
accident  in  France,  but  positively  puts  an  end  to 
it  then.  In  defiance  of  both  Jefferson  and  Randall, 
Mr.  William  Eleroy  Curtis  keeps  Jefferson  fiddling 
with  his  stiff  wrist  all  through  his  term  of  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  holds  him  to  it  even  while  he  is 
President. 

A  most  remarkable  composer  of  true  biographies 
is  Mr.  Curtis,  to  be  sure! 

Perhaps  it  was  while  Jefferson  was  playing  with 
a  stiff  wrist  that  he  made  the  reputation  which 
Mr.  Curtis  said  he  had — of  being  the  sorriest  fiddler 
in  Virginia. 


261 


CHAPTEE    XXVIII 

THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION 

THE  learned  Parisian  doctors  advised  the  suf 
ferer  to  drink  the  waters  of  Aix.  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
himself  something  of  a  surgeon — could  set  a  broken 
limb  and  tie  up  an  artery — and  we  can  not  but  think 
he  wished  to  travel  for  the  sake  of  traveling,  else 
he  would  not  have  gone  to  such  a  distance  to  drink 
water  for  a  bruised  wrist. 

Whatever  his  motive,  he  set  forth  upon  his 
travels,  drank  water  at  Aix  for  a  while,  derived 
no  benefit  therefrom,  and  resumed  his  light  wines 
as  he  continued  his  journey.  The  diary  in  which  he 
recorded  his  experience  indicates  that  he  was  not 
one  of  those  who  go  about  merely  to  look  at  houses 
and  trees,  rivers  and  mountains.  He  studied  the 
people.  He  wanted  to  know  how  they  lived,  what 
kind  of  food  they  ate,  and  beds  they  slept  on;  what 
sort  of  work  was  done,  and  what  wages  were  paid. 
He  entered  their  homes,  lolled  upon  their  cots, 
peeped  into  their  pots,  pried  with  tongue  and  spied 
with  eye,  in  the  most  practical,  prosaic,  uncomfort 
able  manner. 

Delighted  with  his  success,  he  wrote  to  Lafay- 
262 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 

ette  that  if  he  really  wished  to  know  the  condition 
of  his  own  people,  he,  the  marquis,  must  do  what 
he,  the  American  minister,  was  then  doing — he 
must  go  into  the  huts  of  the  poor,  and  see  for  him 
self  just  how  they  lived. 

That  the  French  peasantry  were  wretchedly 
poor,  degraded,  squalid,  and  ignorant  to  a  shameful 
degree  is  true — a  truth  which  is  disagreeable  to 
the  system  of  king  rule  and  priest  rule  which  had 
so  long  held  them  in  absolute  subjection.  Mr. 
Jefferson's  opinion  was  that  nineteen  million  of  the 
twenty  million  citizens  of  France  were  in  a  worse 
condition  than  the  most  abject  victims  of  poverty 
in  America.1 

His  sympathy  with  the  downtrodden  nineteen 
millions  was  profound;  his  indignation  against  the 
one  million  oppressives  was  hot  and  bitter. 

No  words  were  strong  enough  to  condemn  the 
heartless  rulers  who  had  enslaved  and  brutalized 
the  masses  in  order  that  the  privileged  few  might 
revel  in  riches  beyond  the  limits  of  healthy,  ra 
tional  desire. 

To  Washington,  Monroe,  and  others  he  wrote  in 
most  contemptuous  terms  of  the  besotted  kings, 
the  reckless,  selfish  nobles,  the  cruel  inequalities 
and  injustice  of  the  Old  World  system;  but  his  tone 
is  always  that  of  a  statesman  deepened  in  convic 
tions  which  he  had  long  held. 

1  Yet  he  notes  that  he  had  never  seen  a  drunken  man  in  France. 

263 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

His  repeated  cry  is:  "If  you  want  to  fully  ap 
preciate  the  blessings  of  our  democracy,  come  over 
here  and  see  what  the  other  thing  is!  Come  and 
gaze  upon  these  swinish  Kings,  these  Queens  who 
madly  gamble;  these  nobles  who  shirk  every  duty, 
plunder  the  taxpayers,  and  live  riotously  on  the 
spoils;  these  priests  who  are  as  greedy  as  the  peers 
and  as  corrupt!  Come  and  gaze  upon  the  toilers 
of  the  land,  those  who  feed  and  clothe  and  serve 
their  masters,  living  in  huts  not  fit  for  horse  or 
cow,  keeping  body  and  soul  together  on  food  not 
good  enough  for  a  decent  dog!  Look  at  their  rags, 
their  starved  faces  and  forms!  Their  minds  are 
blank;  they  have  had  no  schools.  Ignorant,  super 
stitious,  well-nigh  bestial,  they  have  lost  all  con 
ception  of  government,  and  their  religion  is  a 
meaningless  form.  To  them,  the  state  means  a 
master  they  must  pay,  or  be  damned  here  on  earth; 
the  Church  is  a  master  they  must  pay,  or  be  damned 
in  hell  hereafter.  Behold  in  France  the  ripened 
harvest  of  the  system!  A  dull,  coarse-mannered 
King,  whose  rapture  is  to  slaughter  tame  birds  and 
deer;  a  Queen  who  is  frivolous,  headstrong, 
haughty,  and  devoted  to  gambling;  a  nobility 
which  is  rotten  to  the  very  core;  a  Church  which 
crucifies  its  Saviour  every  day  in  the  week;  a  peas 
antry  which  has  never  known  a  kind  word  or  deed 
from  those  who  are  its  self-constituted  shepherds — 
a  peasantry  which  has  never  known  its  masters 

264 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 

save  in  the  taxes  which  plundered  and  the  dis 
criminations  which,  heavy  as  a  yoke,  cut  like  a 
lash!" 

Washington,  pleasantly  engaged  in  rehabilita 
ting  Mount  Vernon,  could  not  realize  what  Jefferson 
witnessed  in  France.  For  this  reason,  as  well  as 
others,  he  could  never  sympathize  with  the  French 
Revolution. 

In  all  the  earlier  stages  of  that  mighty  move 
ment  Mr.  Jefferson  was  as  openly  a  friend  of  the 
reformers  as  his  position  allowed. 

His  mansion  was  common  ground  upon  which 
the  reform  leaders  could  meet  to  adjust  their  differ 
ences,  and  they  sometimes  embarrassed  him  by  the 
freedom  with  which  they  used  it. 

The  French  ministers  to  whom  Jefferson  made 
explanation  not  only  took  no  offense,  but,  in  effect, 
expressed  the  hope  that  these  reformers  might  con 
tinue  to  have  the  benefit  of  Jefferson's  wise,  con 
servative  advice. 

That  he  was  conservative  is  shown  by  the  plan 
of  compromise  between  the  King  and  the  liberal 
nobles  which  he  suggested.  Let  the  monarch  come 
forward  with  a  charter  in  which  he  should  grant 
liberty  of  the  person,  of  the  conscience,  and  of  the 
press;  trial  by  jury;  a  representative  legislature,  to 
meet  annually  and  control  taxation;  and  a  ministry 
responsible  to  the  people. 

Unfortunately,  the  King  was  controlled  by  a 
265 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

party  which  refused  concession,  while  the  reform 
ers  were  dominated  by  a  faction  which  demanded 
more  than  Jefferson  outlined.  No  compromise 
could  be  made,  and  the  Revolution  rolled  on. 

Having  seen  for  himself  the  miserable  condition 
of  the  French  peasantry,  the  interest  with  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  regarded  the  opening  scenes  of  the 
Eevolution  may  be  imagined. 

He  saw  the  notables  called  together,  the  high 
heads  of  Church  and  State.  He  saw  them  cling  to 
their  privileges,  refusing  to  yield  anything.  They 
were  prosperous,  they  considered  the  system  a 
glorious  system.  It  had  been  good  enough  for  their 
fathers;  it  was  good  enough  for  them.  Surrender 
their  privileges!  Give  up  feudal  dues!  Tax  them 
selves!  Grant  relief  to  the  peasants!  Never  in  the 
world! 

The  high  heads  go  as  they  came,  very  high,  in 
deed. 

But  something  must  be  done.  The  King  needs 
money.  And  the  people,  so  it  is  said,  are  on  the 
point  of  starvation.  The  States-General  is  called, 
and  Mr.  Jefferson  attends  the  opening  scene.  He 
witnesses  the  preliminary  struggle  over  the  ques 
tion  of  one  general  assembly,  where  each  deputy 
shall  have  one  vote,  or  three  separate  assemblies, 
where  any  one  chamber  can  veto  the  action  of  the 
others.  A  vital  issue,  for  the  assembly  of  the  no 
bles  would  veto  the  acts  of  the  commons,  even  if 

266 


THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION 

the  assembly  of  the  higher  clergy  did  not.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  is  there  when  the  royal  sitting  is  held,  and 
when  the  King  in  person  commands  the  deputies  to 
separate  into  three  houses;  there  when  deputies  re 
main  after  the  King  has  gone;  there  when  Mirabeau 
thunders  his  famous  refusal  to  get  out. 

He  is  deep  in  the  counsels  of  the  reformers  all 
along  here.  King-bearding  is  a  pastime  he  is  fond 
of;  he  has  bearded  a  King  before.  Tradition  says 
that  it  was  he  who  advised  the  commons  to  declare 
themselves  the  assembly,  leaving  it  to  the  other  two 
classes  to  say  whether  they  would  join  or  not.1 

He  is  present  at  the  very  first  collision  between 
the  people  and  the  troops;  he  is  there  when  the  Bas- 
tile  is  stormed;  there  when  the  gory  head  of  poor 
old  De  Launay — from  the  end  of  a  pike — stares 
upon  the  wild  multitudes  of  Paris.  Mr.  Jefferson 
is  in  Paris  when  the  King  is  brought  from  Ver 
sailles  to  have  the  badge  of  Revolution  pinned  in 
his  coat  and  its  watchwords  practised  on  his  lips. 
He  is  there  on  that  memorable  night  in  August 
when  feudalism  is  offered  up,  a  burnt  offering,  to 
appease  the  wrath  of  gods  and  men.  Sages  take 
their  places  to  write  a  Constitution  for  the  new 
France,  and  they  invite  Mr.  Jefferson  to  be  present 
and  to  help — an  invitation  which  flatters,  but  which 
must  be  declined.  All  the  time  that  he  is  heart  and 

1  The  British  ambassador  to  France,  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  wrote  that 
Jefferson  gave  the  advice  here  alluded  to. 

267 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

soul  with  the  reformers  he  urges  them  not  to  at 
tempt  too  much  now.  Leave  something  to  time. 
By  demanding  too  much,  you  may  lose  all.  Go 
slow. 

They  all  respect  him,  confide  in  him,  look  up  to 
him.  Around  him  is  the  halo  of  the  success  of  the 
American  Revolution.  He  is  an  authority — a  sol 
dier  in  the  sacred  cause  of  civil  liberty,  whose  lau 
rels  are  still  fresh. 

Barnave,  who  was  not  afraid  to  cross  swords 
even  with  Mirabeau,  is  to  be  seen  at  Jefferson's 
table;  also  De  Lameth;  also  Duport;  also  Mounier. 
We  know  that  Jefferson  was  familiar  with  such 
men  as  Montmorin  and  Necker,  such  women  as 
Madame  Houditot,  De  Tesse,  and  Necker's  brilliant 
daughter;  but  did  he  know  the  angular,  sharp-faced 
member  from  Arcis — Robespierre?  Did  he  ever 
chance  to  discuss  science  with  Dr.  Jean  Paul 
Marat?  Did  he  ever  hear  thundering  at  the  Palais- 
Royal  the  burly  Danton? 

We  know  what  he  thought  of  the  oratory  of 
Mirabeau — life  is  bountiful  when  it  permits  the 
same  man  to  hear  both  Patrick  Henry  and  Mira 
beau.  We  know  that  he  was  acquainted  with  the 
Girondin  Condorcet,  and  that  he  gave  to  Brissot, 
another  Girondin,  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Mad 
ison;  but  did  he  ever  meet  the  lofty-minded  patriot 
Louvet,  a  third  Girondin,  whose  book  of  Chevalier 
Faublas  (so  detested  by  Thomas  Carlyle)  deals 

268 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 

largely  with  the  adventures  of  the  Count  Pulaski, 
who  gave  his  life  for  us  at  Savannah? 

Among  the  young  nobles  whom  he  met  in  his 
social  rounds,  did  he  happen  to  know  the  gallant 
Viscount  Beauharnais,  and  the  gay  wife  of  the 
same — sweet-faced,  soft-voiced,  artfully  artless 
Josephine? 

The  Abbe*  Raynal  was  a  savant  of  some  reputa 
tion.  Did  he  ever  see  the  American  minister,  and  if 
so,  did  he  introduce  his  protege,  Lieutenant  Napo 
leon  Bonaparte? 

Questions  like  these  naturally  occur  to  the 
mind,  but  they  can  not  be  answered.  Owing  to  the 
bungling  work  of  a  crude  letter-press,  all  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  letters,  at  the  most  interesting  period 
of  his  stay  in  France,  are  unreadable. 


209 


CHAPTER    XXIX 

RETURN  TO   MONTICELLO 

MR.  JEFFERSON,  upon  his  arrival  in  Paris,  had 
placed  his  daughter  Martha  in  a  convent  school. 
The  other  two  he  left  in  Virginia  with  their  aunt, 
Mrs.  Eppes.  The  youngest,  Lucy,  died  soon  after 
her  father  reached  France,  being  about  two  years 
old  at  the  time.  In  1787  Mary  Jefferson  joined  her 
father  and  her  sister  in  Paris,  and  was  also  placed 
in  the  convent  school.  Martha  is  described  as  be 
ing  tall  and  elegant,  with  a  calm,  sweet  face, 
stamped  with  thought  and  earnestness.  She  was 
modest;  she  was  both  gentle  and  genial;  and  she 
possessed  fine  natural  talents,  which  she  was  faith 
ful  in  her  efforts  to  improve.  Her  temper  was 
sunny;  extremes  were  unknown  to  her;  the  eleva 
tion  of  her  father  never  elated  her  unduly;  and  the 
misfortunes  which  came  upon  him,  and  upon  her, 
could  not  break  her  spirit.  "  The  noblest  woman  in 
Virginia!"  So  said  John  Randolph,  of  Koanoke, 
who  did  not  love  her  for  her  father's  sake. 

Mary  Jefferson  is  said  to  have  been  beautiful  in 
form  and  face,  like  her  mother.  "  A  finer  child  of 

270 


RETURN   TO   MONTICELLO 

her  age  I  never  saw,"  wrote  Mrs.  John  Adams,  who 
kept  the  girl  a  while  in  London  till  Mr.  Jefferson 
could  send  for  her.  "  She  was  the  favorite  of  every 
one  in  the  house."  She  was  one  of  those  impulsive, 
warm,  and  clinging  children  whose  throne  is  a 
father's  knee,  and  who  must  run  to  him  with  every 
beautiful  flower  it  has  found,  every  beautiful  pic 
ture  it  sees  in  the  books;  one  who  must  rush  to  his 
arms  for  consolation,  when  its  little  griefs  come, 
and  weep  its  way  to  comfort  on  his  breast. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  enjoying  the  freedom 
and  advantages  of  his  position  so  much  that  he 
came  near  making  a  grave  mistake  with  his  oldest 
daughter.  He  forgot  how  long  she  had  been  at  the 
convent,  until  one  morning  in  1789  he  received  a 
note  from  her  in  which  she  asked  his  permission  to 
become  a  nun. 

Allowing  the  note  to  go  unanswered  for  a  day 
or  two,  he  drove  to  the  convent,  had  the  necessary 
explanations  with  the  abbess,  then,  telling  his 
daughters  that  he  had  come  to  take  them  away 
from  school,  he  drove  off  with  them  to  his  home. 

Engaging  special  masters,  the  education  of  the 
young  ladies  wTas  continued,  special  attention  be 
ing  given  to  their  music  and  dancing.  Each  of  them 
spoke  French  almost  as  fluently  as  they  did  their 
mother  tongue. 

When  Mr.  Randall  stated  that,  after  coming 
from  the  convent,  Martha  Jefferson  was  introduced 

271 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

into  society,  he  probably  meant  no  more  than  he 
said,  viz.,  that  she  began  to  meet  her  father's 
friends  socially,  receiving  and  paying  visits  in  Mr. 
Jefferson's  quiet  way.  Mr.  Eandall  could  not  have 
meant  that  Martha  had  not  been  in  society  pre 
vious  to  that  time,  for  the  letters  he  prints  show 
that  so  early  as  1787  she  accompanied  her  father 
on  his  social  rounds. 

Resolved  into  its  real  elements,  the  episode  be 
comes  simple  enough.  The  American  minister  puts 
his  daughter  in  charge  of  the  abbess  of  a  convent, 
to  be  educated.  Sanctimoniously  environed,  the 
impressionable  girl  becomes  sanctimonious,  inclin 
ing  to  nunnery.  The  mother  superior  herself,  no 
doubt,  required  that  the  minor  child  consult  her 
father  before  committing  herself.  At  any  rate, 
the  suggestion  comes  to  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  frank, 
open  way.  He  acts  the  gentlemen  with  the  abbess, 
for  he  goes  to  her  before  seeing  his  daughter.  He 
acts  the  kind-hearted  parent  with  the  child,  for  he 
utters  no  word  of  reproof.  He  asserts  his  rights 
as  parent,  for  he  takes  his  girls  home.  And  he 
acts  the  man  of  the  world,  for  he  gives  them  other 
teachers,  and  throws  them  with  people  who  are 
not  so  sanctimonious. 

That  is  all  there  is  of  it — until  Mr.  William 
Eleroy  Curtis  gets  hold  of  the  incident,  and  then  oc 
currences  befall! 

He  makes  Martha's  letter  to  her  father  a  "  tear- 
272 


RETURN   TO  MONTICELLO 

ful  entreaty."  No  tear-splotches  were  in  the  mis 
sive  till  Mr.  Curtis  took  possession.  Furthermore, 
he  makes  Jefferson  a  boor,  who  sends  for  his  chil 
dren,  without  a  previous  interview  with,  or  a  mes 
sage  to,  the  abbess. 

Then,  having  unceremoniously  affronted  the  ab 
bess  by  sending  for  the  girls,  he  leaves  off  educa 
ting  Martha,  and  immediately  plunges  her  "  into  the 
brilliant  scenes  of  the  court  of  Louis  XVI,  where 
she  soon  forgot  " — and  so  forth! 

The  scenes  of  the  court  of  poor  Louis  XVI  were 
not  so  very  brilliant  in  the  year  1789,  when  the  Jef 
ferson  girls  were  taken  from  school;  and  there  is 
no  evidence  that  either  of  them  was  ever  introduced 
into  the  "  court  scenes  "  at  all.  If  a  Virginia  girl  of 
the  peculiarly  noble  type  of  Martha  Jefferson  had 
been  thrust  immediately  into  the  stifling  atmos 
phere  of  that  court,  with  its  Polignacs,  its  D'Artois, 
its  gambling  Queen  and  tipsy  King — this  brothel, 
as  the  Queen's  own  brother  called  it — the  prob 
ability  is  that  the  convent  would  have  gained  im 
mensely  by  contrast  and  the  diplomatic  parent 
would  have  realized  that  he  had  overreached  him 
self. 


In  the  spring  of  1788,  Mr.  Jefferson  went  to  Am 
sterdam  to  concert  with  Mr.  Adams  some  plan  to 
satisfy  the  hungry  creditors  of  the  United  States, 
w  273 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Traveling  in  his  own  carriage,  using  post-horses, 
he  passed  through  Valenciennes,  Brussels,  Ant 
werp,  Rotterdam,  and  The  Hague.  Mr.  Adams 
joined  him  here,  and  they  proceeded  in  company  to 
Amsterdam,  where  they  got  rid  of  the  old  debts  by 
the  comparatively  familiar  device  of  making  a  new 
one.  Mr.  Adams  having  executed  bonds  to  the 
amount  of  a  million  florins,  subject  to  the  approval 
of  Congress,  the  ministers  separated,  and  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  extended  his  journey  up  the  Ehine,  visiting 
Cologne,  Frankfort,  Heidelberg,  Mannheim,  Carls- 
ruhe,  and  Strasburg.  He  returned  to  Paris  by  way 
of  the  Marne. 


At  the  time  Mr.  Jefferson  accepted  the  diplo 
matic  mission  he  had  supposed  that  his  absence 
from  home  would  not  be  long.  Two  years  was  the 
length  of  his  term  of  office.  But  when  Congress 
nominated  him  to  the  position  made  vacant  by  Dr. 
Franklin,  his  stay  had  prolonged  itself  into  five 
years. 

It  was  important  that  he  should  return  home 
for  at  least  a  few  months.  His  private  business  re 
quired  it,  his  family  affairs  required  it. 

Not  till  August,  1789,  did  he  receive  notice  of 
the  desired  leave  of  absence,  and  it  was  November, 
1789,  when  he  and  his  daughters  reached  Norfolk. 
They  journeyed  toward  home  leisurely,  for  it  was 

274 


RETURN   TO   MONTICELLO 

not  till  Christmas  was  almost  upon  them  that  they 
reached  Monticello. 

In  Richmond,  where  the  Legislature  was  in  ses 
sion,  his  loyal  friend  Edmund  Randolph  met  him 
at  the  head  of  a  deputation  from  the  House,  to  wel 
come  him  home,  and  present  congratulatory  reso- 
tions.1  Making  suitable  reply,  Mr.  Jefferson  con 
tinued  his  journey  till  he  reached  the  home  of  Mr. 
Eppes,  his  brother-in-law,  where  he  spent  some 
days. 

As  his  carriage  at  length  drew  near  Monticello, 
two  days  before  Christmas,  everybody  on  the  place 
came  streaming  down  the  road  to  meet  him. 

The  negroes  were  in  a  state  of  excitement, 
which  grew  as  they  waited;  and  when  at  length 
they  caught  sight  of  his  carriage  they  broke  into 
shouts  of  welcome.  They  whooped,  they  laughed, 
they  cried — they  couldn't  keep  hands  off.  They 
must  take  hold  of  something,  somewhere!  Traces 
were  undone,  horses  taken  out,  stout  slaves  caught 
hold,  and,  in  spite  of  all  the  master  could  do,  the 
negroes  rushed  uphill  with  the  carriage,  some  pull 
ing  in  front,  some  pushing  behind,  some  keeping  at 
the  wheels  till  the  level  ground  was  reached  at  the 
top  and  old  master  was  at  home  again! 

The  door  was  plucked  open,  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  caught  up  in  strong  arms  and  "  toted  "  into  the 

1  Conway  says  it  was  Randolph,  Parton  says  it  was  Patrick  Henry 
who  was  the  mover  of  this  ovation. 

275 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

house  in  the  midst  of  a  delirium  of  enthusiastic  joy, 
which  passed  from  the  kissing  of  his  hands  to  the 
kissing  of  his  feet. 

Bright  shone  the  lights  at  Monticello  that  night, 
and  late  was  the  hour,  no  doubt,  when  the  sounds 
of  gladness  died  away  and  sleep  enwrapped  the 
place — "  big  house,"  quarters,  and  all.  And  after 
everybody  else  had  gone  to  bed,  and  every  other 
candle  wras  out,  we  have  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  the  home-coming  statesman  softly  opened  the 
secret  drawer  in  the  private  cabinet,  touched  rev 
erently  the  souvenirs  of  the  dead  wife,  who  had  al 
ways  greeted  his  returns  before,  and,  in  the  loneli 
ness  of  the  house  where  all  but  he  slumbered,  the 
old  "  wounds,  which  have  bled  enough,"  opened 
again  and  bled  once  more. 


276 


CHAPTER    XXX 

DEMOCRACY   IN   VIRGINIA 

NOBODY  cares  much  to  know  where  the  aver 
age  river  rises;  it  is  a  matter  of  no  particular  conse 
quence,  and  makes  no  appeal  to  the  imagination. 
But  when  one  looks  upon  the  fountains  from  which 
the  Danube  flows,  when  one  gazes  down  into  the 
feeble  beginnings  of  the  Nile,  the  Amazon,  or  the 
Mississippi,  the  feeling  must  be  altogether  differ 
ent.  So  it  is  with  the  various  governments  of  the 
world.  The  origin  of  the  average  establishment 
awakes  no  especial  curiosity,  challenges  no  especial 
investigation;  but  when  we  come  to  deal  with  such 
a  republic  as  that  which  our  fathers  built,  so  novel 
and  so  great,  the  remote  sources  whence  it  drew 
the  blood  and  breath  of  life  become  intensely  inter 
esting. 

Whose  was  the  original  idea,  whose  the  plan? 
Who  first  unfurled  its  standards  and  fought  its 
early  battles?  Whence  came  the  form  of  our  re 
public,  and  whence  the  spirit? 

The  Puritan  says :  "  It  was  I  who  led  the  way, 
277 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

planted  the  principle,  developed  the  idea,  gave  it 
strength  and  shape,  caused  its  triumph.  Plymouth 
Rock  is  the  corner-stone  of  American  democracy." 

The  Cavalier  says:  "  It  was  I  who  ventured  first, 
suffered  most,  accomplished  most.  My  footing 
here  was  permanent  and  secure  before  the  Puritan 
was  seen.  I  had  planted  trial  by  jury,  representa 
tive  government,  and  local  sovereignty  before  New 
England  ever  heard  of  a  Pilgrim  Father.  Sword  in 
hand,  I  had  wrested  the  charter  of  my  liberties 
from  Great  Britain  a  hundred  years  before  the 
Stamp  Act  was  heard  of;  and  I  was  practising  the 
leading  principles  of  democracy  while  the  Puritan 
was  hunting  for  witches,  offering  large  rewards  for 
Indian  scalps,  selling  King  Philip's  son  into  sla 
very,  torturing  children  to  get  evidence  against 
parents,  persecuting  to  the  death  anybody  who  was 
not  a  Puritan,  denying  the  right  of  citizenship  to 
all  who  were  not  Puritans,  and  straining  every 
nerve  to  establish  the  most  repulsive  theocracy  the 
world  ever  knew." 

Such  are  the  contending  claims  of  Puritan  and 
Cavalier.  They  clash  at  all  points.  But  the  Puri 
tan  was  quickest  with  his  pen.  He  wrote  the  story 
to  suit  himself.  The  Pilgrim  Father's  sketch  was 
worded  by  his  son,  and  its  modesty  is  not  its  stri 
king  feature. 

When  the  three  ships  of  December  19,  1606, 
dropped  down  the  Thames  on  their  way  to  the  sea, 

278 


DEMOCRACY   IN   VIRGINIA 

on  their  way  to  the  New  World,  they  flew  at  their 
mastheads  the  flags  of  a  new  civilization,  a  new 
empire. 

The  Discovery,  the  Goodspeed,  the  Susan  Con 
stant,  with  the  charter  of  King  James  the  First, 
sail  away  from  the  old  home  and  steer  for  the 
Western  World.  They  plant  the  Christian  religion 
at  Jamestown,  establish  trial  by  jury,  and  John 
Smith  is  the  first  man  in  the  New  World  to  be  tried 
by  his  peers,  and  to  have  his  heart  leap  at  the 
blessed  words  "  Not  guilty." 

No  King,  no  Parliament,  aids  these  heroic  ad 
venturers  in  their  struggle  for  existence  in  Vir 
ginia.  When  swamps  are  cleared  away,  they  do  the 
work;  when  savages  assail,  they  do  the  fighting. 
King  James  has  graciously  given  them  a  piece  of 
paper,  that  is  all.  Theirs  the  risk,  the  danger,  the 
toil,  the  misery,  the  pain  of  hunger  and  disease. 
Theirs  the  glory  of  the  victory.  By  sheer  force  of 
character,  hardihood,  and  courage,  "  the  soldier 
ruler,"  John  Smith,  beats  down  every  obstacle, 
asserts  his  dominion  over  the  white  men  of  his 
little  colony  and  the  red  men  of  the  wilderness, 
until  the  settlement  of  Virginia,  its  conquest  to 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  is  no  longer  a  question 
of  doubt. 

"  He  that  will  not  work  shall  not  eat! " 

Admirable  John  Smith!  Ked-headed,  red-whis 
kered,  short  but  stout  apostle  of  American  democ- 

279 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

racy!  Who  ever  founded  a  republic  upon  a  nobler 
principle?  It  is  the  "  golden  rule  "  of  democracy. 

The  Cavaliers  murmured,  but  they  obeyed.  Soon 
it  was  remarked  that  the  half  of  the  colonists  who 
were  classed  as  "  gentlemen "  excelled  the  other 
half  in  manual  labor. 

In  the  year  1612  began  a  further  progress  in  re 
publican  institutions.  Royal  permission  was  given 
to  the  London  Company,  which  controlled  Virginia, 
to  sit  once  a  week  in  London  and  to  hold  four  Gen 
eral  Courts  in  the  year  for  the  consideration  of  the 
colonial  affairs. 

Here  was  the  creation  of  a  democratic  society  in 
the  very  citadel  of  monarchy! 

The  Company  had  authority  to  make  laws  for 
Virginia,  provided  such  laws  were  not  contrary  to 
those  of  Great  Britain.  What  room  for  de 
bate! 

We  are  not  surprised  when  we  read  that  the 
meetings  were  thronged  and  their  discussions  tu 
multuous.  No  wonder  that  the  ambassador  of  Spain 
should  tell  King  James  that  the  Virginia  courts 
were  but  a  seminary  to  a  seditious  Parliament! 

In  Spain,  the  ambassador  could  witness,  almost 
any  month  in  the  year,  the  burning  at  the  stake  of 
some  poor  wretch  who  had  ventured  to  think  for 
himself  on  questions  which  kings  and  priests  had 
declared  were  settled. 

In  London,  owing  to  the  King's  own  lack  of  fore- 
280 


DEMOCRACY   IN   VIRGINIA 

sight,  leading  citizens  were  hotly  debating  the  fun 
damental  bases  of  government.  "  Shall  the  will  of 
the  people  control  in  the  making  of  a  law,  or  shall 
it  be  the  pleasure  of  the  King?  " 

But  for  that  new  charter,  the  mere  discussion 
of  the  question  would  smell  rankly  of  treason. 

In  the  debate,  victory  was  won  by  the  popular 
party;  Virginia  was  to  have  the  essentials  of  free 
government. 

In  the  year  1619  (no  Pilgrim  Fathers  yet  in 
sight!)  every  free  man  in  Virginia  who  chose  to 
vote  did  so,  and  thus  chose  a  representative  to  the 
General  Assembly  at  Jamestown,  which  began  to 
make  laws  for  the  people. 

Here  was  the  cradle  of  American  democracy! 

In  this  first  of  representative  assemblies  held 
by  white  men  on  this  continent  demand  was  made 
for  home  rule,  and  two  years  later  that  demand 
was  expressly  conceded.  No  orders  of  the  London 
Company  were  to  be  binding  on  the  colony  "  unless 
they  be  ratified  by  the  General  Assemblies  "  of  the 
colony. 

This  paper  bears  date  24th  July,  1621.  What 
charter  of  free  government  in  America  antedates 
it? 

When  Cromwell  overturned  royalty  in  England, 
the  Cavaliers  of  Virginia,  loyal  to  Church  and  King, 
remained  steadfast.  With  arms  in  their  hands, 
they  treated  for  peace  with  CromwTelPs  commission- 

281 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

ers.  A  formal  compact  was  agreed  to,  put  in  wri 
ting,  and  signed.  The  eighth  article  of  that  treaty 
reads: 

"  Virginia  shall  be  free  from  all  taxes,  customs, 
and  impositions  whatsoever!"  "None  shall  be  im 
posed  without  the  consent  of  the  Grand  Assembly  " 
(of  Virginia),  "  and  neither  forts  nor  castles  shall 
be  erected  nor  garrisons  maintained  without  their 
consent." 

Here  was  local  independence!  Freedom  from 
taxation,  freedom  of  trade,  freedom  from  English 
troops  and  forts,  home  rule  through  their  own  rep 
resentatives! 

Is  it  any  marvel  that,  after  CromwelPs  time,  the 
minions  of  a  restored  and  shameless  King  should 
attempt  to  encroach  upon  the  liberties  which 
Cromwell  had  sanctioned,  and  that  "  Great  Ke- 
bellion  "  should  be  the  measure  of  Virginia's  resist 
ance? 

Young  Nathaniel  Bacon,  land-owning  Cavalier, 
was  just  as  true  a  patriot  when  he  led  the  embattled 
Virginians  in  1676  as  young  George  Washington, 
land-owning  Cavalier,  was  when  he  led  them  in 
1776.  Home  rule,  civil  liberty,  just  laws,  and  good 
government  were  just  as  much  at  the  bottom  of  the 
quarrel  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 


282 


CHAPTER    XXXI 

BEGINNINGS     OF    THE    REPUBLIC 

WE  have  already  seen  how  this  independent 
spirit  flamed  up  again  in  1764  and  1765,  when  Na 
thaniel  Bacons  all  over  Virginia  left  their  farms 
to  maintain  their  rights.  We  have  heard  the  orator 
talk  and  seen  the  soldier  arm.  We  have  learned 
that  in  all  the  colonies  the  feeling  was  practically 
the  same,  and  that  nothing  was  needed  but  leader 
ship  and  organization  to  weld  separate  committees 
into  a  confederation. 

We  have  seen  the  younger  Virginians  holding 
their  private  meetings,  apart  from  the  more  con 
servative  members  of  the  Legislature;  we  have 
seen  them  agree  upon  the  Committee  of  Corre 
spondence,  whose  mission  it  will  be  to  knit  the 
threads  of  continental  union. 

Whose  brain  originated  the  plan?  Some  claim 
it  for  Richard  Henry  Lee,  some  for  Samuel  Adams, 
some  for  Jefferson.  It  is  Dabney  Carr  who  came 
forward  to  proclaim  it,  and  to  advocate  it  so  con 
vincingly  that  no  opposition  is  heard. 

We  have  seen  the  first  Congress  meet  and  sepa 
rate,  having  done  little  more  than  establish  the 

283 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

vital  fact  that  the  Continental  Congress  was  some 
thing  more  than  a  suggestion.  It  was  a  reality. 

Other  Congresses  follow,  and  we  see  the  begin 
nings  of  nationality.  We  stand  at  the  head  waters. 
We  gaze  down,  down  into  the  little  parent  streams 
with  profound  interest.  With  what  artful  manage 
ment  the  colonies  are  kept  in  line,  taught  to  keep 
step!  With  what  diplomacy  the  front  ranks  are 
made  to  go  slow  till  lagging  patriots  can  be  brought 
up!  How  careful  the  extremists  are  not  to  frighten 
the  conservatives!  Notice  that  the  fiction  of  "  your 
Majesty's  loyal  subjects  "  is  maintained  to  the  very 
last  moment,  and  that  the  magic  word  Independ 
ence  does  not  slip  the  muzzle  until  all  the  colonists 
are  in  line  of  battle,  with  George  Washington  in 
command. 

Then  note  the  earnest  reaching  out  for  supports, 
for  outside  help.  See  the  anxiety  to  protect  the 
Western  flank  from  hostile  Indians.  Nobody's  aid 
is  scorned  in  those  days.  Every  savage  has  his 
value.  No  man  is  tested  as  to  his  religion  if  he  be 
ready  to  serve  the  cause.  Baptists  can  preach  now. 
Quakers  are  human  beings  now. 

The  Indians  come  to  a  conference  at  Easton, 
Pa.  Congress  selects  a  commission  to  treat  with 
them,  and  Tom  Paine  is  secretary.  They  carry 
a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  presents  along,  to 
be  put  where  they  will  do  the  most  good.  The  con 
ference  is  held  in  the  German  Reformed  church. 

284 


BEGINNINGS    OF   THE    REPUBLIC 

There  is  an  organ  in  this  church,  which  is  one  ad 
vantage.  We  will  soothe  the  savage  ear  with 
music.  If  the  rural  organ,  primitively  played,  does 
not  reduce  the  red  man  to  a  pliable  state  of  mind, 
something  else  must  be  tried.  Eum!  So  our  con 
gressional  committee  brings  along  a  supply  of  New 
England  rum.  Few  are  the  Indians  who  can  resist 
this  New  England  beverage. 

The  organ  sounds,  the  rum  barrel  is  broached — 
we  will  now  shake  hands,  and  all  take  a  drink,  while 
the  organist  plays  something  appropriate.  The  of 
ficial  report  states  that  "  after  shaking  hands, 
drinking  rum,  while  the  organ  played,  we  proceeded 
to  business."  Wise  in  their  generation  were  our 
forefathers! 

We  have  already  seen  how  Congress  first  de 
nounced  Great  Britain  for  surrendering  Canada  to 
the  Catholics,  and  then  sent  influential  Catholics  to 
enlist  Canada  against  Great  Britain.  In  vain 
Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  and  the  Rev.  John 
Carroll  explain  and  negotiate.  The  language  Con 
gress  had  used  against  the  Catholic  Church  was 
too  strong  and  too  recent;  the  timely  concessions 
England  had  made  to  the  Church  were  too  valuable; 
Canadian  Catholics  decided  to  let  well  enough 
alone.  No  help  could  be  had  from  the  North.  But 
in  another  part  of  the  sky  there  was  a  rift  in  the 
cloud.  France,  though  bound  to  England  by  sol 
emn  treaty,  was  smarting  from  the  wounds  Great 

285 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Britain  had  given  her,  and  hungered  for  revenge- 
yet  was  afraid  to  strike. 

As  accomplices  in  a  criminal  enterprise  did 
France  and  the  United  States  first  begin  to  come 
together. 

We  have  already  had  a  glimpse  of  the  "  elderly 
lame  man "  having  the  "  appearance  of  an  old 
wounded  French  officer"  who  mysteriously  hung 
around  Philadelphia  in  November,  1775,  dropping 
vague  hints  and  dim  notifications  that  he  had  come 
in  behalf  of  the  King  of  France. 

Confronted  by  a  committee,  and  urged  to  say 
something  one  could  do  business  on,  the  elderly 
lame  man  drew  his  finger  across  his  throat  elo 
quently,  and  said: 

"  Gentlemen,  I  shall  take  care  of  my  head." 

This  was  De  Bonvouloir,  a  very  respectable 
scion  of  the  French  nobility.  He  had  come  at  the 
instance  of  his  Government,  yet  so  violative  of 
treaty  was  it  for  him  to  be  there,  that  he  knew  full 
well  that  his  King  would  repudiate  him  if  things 
went  wrong,  and  that  his  poor  old  head  might  pay 
the  forfeit  which  would,  in  that  event,  appease  the 
just  wrath  of  Great  Britain. 

Writing  home  about  his  conferences  with  mem 
bers  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Bonvouloir 
states: 

"  Each  comes  to  the  place  indicated  in  the  dark, 
by  different  roads." 

286 


THOMAS  SUMTER. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   THE    REPUBLIC 

Verily,  one's  brain  evolves  reflections  when  one 
stands  at  the  fountainhead  of  national  greatness. 
That  was,  in  truth,  the  commencement  of  the 
French  alliance  upon  which  our  success  was 
founded. 

Silas  Deane  goes  to  France,  and  the  important 
portions  of  his  letters  to  his  home  Government  are 
written  in  invisible  ink. 

Explaining  to  John  Jay  how  to  read  Deane's  let 
ters,  Beaumarchais  writes: 

"  You  will  use  a  certain  liquid  (that  Mr.  Deane 
told  me  you  had)  upon  the  margin  of  the  printed 
sheets  so  as  to  make  legible  what  Mr.  Deane  has 
wrote.  Should  it  not  have  its  proper  effect,  which 
I  am  afraid  of,  as  the  letters  were  put  into  a  tin 
box  in  a  barrel  of  rum,  which  has  eat  through,  and 
I  am  afraid  has  damaged  them,  the  inclosed  letter 
is  of  the  same  contents." 

Think  of  the  correspondence  between  France 
and  America  going  by  way  of  a  tin  box  hid  in  a 
barrel  of  rum! 

Vergennes,  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Af 
fairs,  not  daring  to  openly  show  his  hand,  gives 
from  the  French  treasury  a  million  francs  ($200,- 
000)  to  the  struggling  colonies,  but  does  it  on  the 
sly,  covering  up  the  transaction  so  that  his  go-be 
tween,  Beaumarchais,  seems  to  be  simply  a  mer 
chant  selling  goods  to  the  Americans.  So  well, 
indeed,  is  the  matter  concealed  that,  after  the 

287 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

death  of  Vergennes,  Beaumarckais  attempts  to 
compel  the  United  States  to  pay  him  the  million 
which  had  been  donated.  It  was  not  till  1794  that 
Gouverneur  Morris,  our  then  minister  to  France, 
was  able  to  find  the  receipt  which  Beaumarchais 
gave  to  the  French  treasury  for  the  million  francs.1 

While  French  aid  was  coming  to  us  in  their 
roundabout  way,  Tom  Paine  published  a  statement 
in  Philadelphia  which  let  the  secret  out,  and  the 
French  minister,  Gerard,  made  such  an  outcry 
about  it  that  Congress  had  to  denounce  it  as  false. 
Paine's  indiscretion  was  so  palpable  that  efforts 
were  made  to  dismiss  him  from  his  post  as  Foreign 
Secretary.  To  relieve  Congress  as  well  as  himself, 
he  resigned.2 

Dr.  Franklin  goes  abroad  to  make  friends  for 
the  colonies.  At  first  he  is  a  mere  private  citizen, 
living  modestly  at  Passy,  on  the  outskirts  of  Paris. 
He  cultivates  everybody,  and  waits.  Agreeable  to 
the  women  as  well  as  the  men,  to  philosophers  and 
politicians,  to  Masons  and  to  Catholics,  to  atheists 
and  to  Calvinists,  to  financiers  and  to  literary  men- 
all  are  fish  for  his  net.  Franklin  soon  becomes  the 
fashion,  the  rage;  and  the  French  alliance  begins 
to  walk  on  its  own  feet. 

*  Three  million  francs  were  advanced,  in  all,  previous  to  the  treaty  of 
1778. 

s  Mr.  Pellew,  in  his  John  Jay,  states  that  Paine  then  became  a 
paid  writer  for  France.  Gerard  offered  him  such  employment,  but  Mr. 
M.  D.  Conway  declares  that  Paine  never  took  a  cent  of  Gerard's  money. 

288 


BEGINNINGS   OF   THE   REPUBLIC 

A  careless  man  with  his  papers  and  his  accounts 
is  the  good  Dr.  Franklin.  When  he  returns  to 
America  and  faces  a  congressional  committee  he  is 
found  to  be  half  a  million  dollars  short. 

"  How  about  this  deficit,  doctor?  "  In  answer 
to  so  natural  a  question  the  good  doctor  says:  "I 
was  taught  when  a  boy  to  read  the  Scriptures  and 
attend  to  them,  and  it  is  there  said:  muzzle  not  the 
ox  that  treadeth  out  his  master's  grain." 

Of  Franklin's  honesty  there  could  be  no  reason 
able  doubt;  the  money  had  probably  been  used  in 
Europe  as  secret-service  funds  are  generally  used. 


20  289 


CHAPTER    XXXII 

ARTICLES   OF   CONFEDERATION 

OUT  of  the  Committees  of  Correspondence  grew 
the  Congress,  suggested  by  Massachusetts  and 
brought  into  being  by  the  prompt,  warm-hearted 
action  of  South  Carolina.  Out  of  the  Congress  grew 
the  Articles  of  Confederation.  The  principal  de 
fects  of  these  articles  were:  (1)  They  gave  the  Gen 
eral  Government  no  right  of  taxation;  (2)  no  power 
to  regulate  commerce;  (3)  no  power  over  the  citizen 
directly;  (4)  no  power  to  enforce  its  will;  (5)  no  real 
executive. 

Congress  might  need  money  and  troops,  but  it 
could  not  directly  raise  either.  Requisitions  had  to 
be  made  on  the  States;  and  when  the  States  re 
fused  to  honor  the  requisitions,  the  General  Gov 
ernment  had  no  power  to  enforce  its  demands. 
Every  State  could  lay  its  duties  upon  commerce, 
and  thus  there  could  be  thirteen  different,  antago 
nistic  systems  in  operation  within  the  Confeder 
ation.  Undoubtedly  this  government  was  too 
weak.  The  central  power  was  not  a  power.  The 
thirteen  sovereign,  independent  States  had  too 
jealously  retained  their  own  sovereignty. 

Against  these  defects  Washington  had  strug- 
290 


ARTICLES    OF   CONFEDERATION 

gled  as  best  he  could  during  the  war,  but  with  the 
deepest  conviction  that  no  effective  government 
was  possible  until  they  were  cured. 

The  central  power  sank  into  contempt  after  the 
peace.  Members  of  Congress  often  stayed  at  home, 
leaving  their  States  unrepresented.  There  were 
practically  no  natural  revenues  with  which  to  pay 
off  the  war  debts.  The  army  dwindled  to  less  than 
one  hundred  men.  Between  citizens  of  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Connecticut  there  was  much  fighting, 
much  property  destroyed,  and  many  lives  lost. 
Wyoming  Valley,  which  had  been  swept  with  fire 
and  sword  in  1778  by  British,  Indians,  and  Tories, 
was  now  laid  waste  again  by  the  troops  of  Pennsyl 
vania — the  victims,  this  time,  being  settlers  from 
Connecticut.  The  dispute  was  over  the  title  to  the 
land. 

New  Jersey  and  Connecticut  were  embroiled  in 
a  commercial  war  with  New  York.  It  had  reached 
an  acute  stage,  where  it  seemed  certain  that  pow 
der  would  soon  burn  and  bullets  fly. 

Shays's  Rebellion  broke  out  in  Massachusetts, 
and  while  it  amounted  to  nothing  and  was  soon  put 
down  without  bloodshed,  it  did  not  strengthen  the 
government  which  survived  it,  as  most  rebellions 
do. 

People  who  wanted  a  stronger  government 
made  immense  capital  out  of  Shays's  poor  little  dis 
turbance,  and  it  rings  with  distressing  loudness  in 

291 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Federalist  histories  till  this  day — the  writers  draw 
ing  lessons  from  it  directly  opposite  to  those  drawn 
from  the  Whisky  Rebellion  in  Pennsylvania  after 
the  Federalists  had  got  what  they  wanted. 

Delegates  to  adjust  commercial  differences  be 
tween  Virginia  and  Maryland,  growing  out  of  nav 
igation  of  the  Potomac,  meet  in  Alexandria,  and 
Washington  is  there.  The  delegates  go  to  Mount 
Vernon,  and  conferences  with  Washington  take 
place.  Another  commercial  meeting  is  called  on  a 
larger  scale,  and  now  James  Madison,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  John  Jay,  and  Edmund  Randolph  become 
active.  The  Annapolis  Convention  takes  good  care 
not  to  regulate  the  commerce  which  needed  regula 
tion,  and  the  scope  of  the  movement  is  skilfully 
broadened  until  it  becomes  a  constitutional  con 
vention,  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  to  amend  the  Ar 
ticles  of  Confederation. 

The  manner  in  which  this  apparently  local  and 
unimportant  commercial  movement  was  nursed 
and  fed  and  disguised,  until  it  became  a  national 
convention,  determined  upon  the  creation  of  an  en 
tirely  new  government,  is  a  wonderful  instance  of 
political  finesse  and  management.  A  few  able,  ex 
pert,  long-headed  gentlemen  recognize  the  neces 
sity  for  a  strong  government,  in  which  the  demo 
cratic  features  shall  be  subordinate.  They  know 
that  the  least  exposure  of  their  scheme  means  death 
to  it.  They  keep  the  real  purpose  hidden  from 

292 


ARTICLES   OF   CONFEDERATION 

sight.  Just  as  the  fiction  of  loyalty  to  the  King 
had  been  kept  up  until  it  was  perfectly  safe  to  ring 
the  Liberty  Bell,  so  now  the  subterfuge  of  regula 
ting  commerce  was  used  as  a  screen  for  the  consti 
tutional  convention. 


Tazewell  Hall,  sitting  on  its  green  terrace  at 
Williamsburg,  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  old- 
fashioned  home  in  Virginia — the  house  of  schol 
arly,  hospitable  John  Randolph,  royal  attorney- 
general  of  the  colony  during  the  time  of  Lord 
Dunmore. 

This  was  one  of  the  centers  of  fashionable  life. 
Crown  officers  were  at  ease  here;  and  whatever  lord 
or  lady  from  the  mother  country  happened  to  visit 
Williamsburg  was  sure  to  be  entertained  at  Taze 
well  Hall. 

Here  also  were  seen  in  familiar  social  inter 
course  with  the  Randolphs  and  with  each  other 
such  men  as  Washington,  Page,  Lee,  Nelson, 
Wythe,  Pendleton  Harrison,  Tucker,  and  Jeffer 
son.  Many  a  time  the  large  barn-like  but  most 
comfortable  old  mansion  was  filled  with  music  as 
the  King's  attorney  bent  lovingly  over  that  cele 
brated  Cremona  violin  and  played  a  duet  with  the 
freckle-faced  lord  of  Monticello.  Many  a  time 
Lord  Dunmore,  guiltless  as  yet  of  burning  Virginia 
towns  and  attempts  at  negro  insurrections,  chatted 

293 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF   JEFFERSON 

contentedly  here  with  councilors,  lawyers,  farmers, 
and  Murray  relatives  from  Scotland.  Through 
these  large  rooms  sounded  footsteps  which  yet 
echo  in  the  corridors  of  time;  within  them  were 
heard  voices  which  history  shall  ever  hear.  The 
only  son  of  the  house,  a  beautiful,  dark-eyed,  manly 
boy,  listened  so  well  to  what  Patrick  Henry  said, 
to  what  the  Lees  and  Jefferson  and  Washington 
said,  that  when  his  father  followed  the  fortunes  of 
Dunmore,  and  exiled  himself  to  London,  he,  Ed 
mund  Kandolph,  cast  his  lot  with  the  patriots,  and 
sought  service  on  Washington's  staff. 

Only  twenty-two  at  this  time,  he  seems  to  have 
been  almost  as  mature  as  Alexander  Hamilton.  To 
him  fell  the  duty  of  entertaining  Washington's 
guests,  doing  the  honors  of  the  house.  To  him  was 
assigned  the  care  of  Washington's  private  affairs, 
his  complicated  interests  in  Virginia. 

When  the  illustrious  Peyton  Randolph  died 
(1775)  his  mantle  seems  to  have  fallen  upon  his 
brilliant  nephew;  and  although  Congress  pressed 
office  upon  him,  and  Washington  reluctantly  gave 
him  a  furlough  from  the  staff,  we  find  the  young 
lawyer  accepting  a  poorly  paid  judicial  position  in 
Virginia,  and  serving  in  the  State  Convention  of 
1776.  Having  served  there  with  Lee,  Mason,  Henry, 
Mann,  Page,  Madison,  and  Bland,  on  terms  of 
equality,  he  became  the  first  attorney-general  of 
reconstructed  Virginia,  filling  the  place  with  con- 

294 


ARTICLES   OF   CONFEDERATION 

spicuous  ability.  In  1780  he  was  in  Congress,  and 
in  1786  he  was  Governor  of  his  State. 

In  the  preceding  January  he  had  been  appointed 
at  the  head  of  the  commission  of  eight  which  the 
Virginia  Assembly  selected  to  meet  the  commis 
sioners  of  other  States  at  Annapolis. 

The  ostensible  business  of  these  commissions 
was  to  regulate  commerce. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Edmund  Randolph 
turned  his  thoughts  to  imports  and  custom-house 
regulations,  but  there  is  proof  that  he  immediately 
began  to  concentrate  his  mind  upon  a  new  consti 
tution. 

His  correspondence  with  Madison  and  Washing 
ton  throws  a  bright  light  upon  the  inner  workings 
of  the  Federalist  movement. 

Anxious  as  General  Washington  had  been  for  a 
stronger  government,  he  was  not  at  all  sanguine. 
The  Annapolis  meeting  might  possibly  lead  to 
something,  and  must  therefore  be  encouraged  and 
attended.  When  the  Philadelphia  convention  was 
ordered  he  was  still  in  doubt  as  to  its  results,  and 
not  at  all  confident  nor  inclined  to  commit  himself 
by  taking  part  in  the  proceedings.  He  had  publicly 
declared  that  he  was  done  with  public  life;  his  pri 
vate  business  demanded  his  attention;  besides,  he 
had  the  rheumatism. 

Edmund  Randolph,  realizing  the  immense  im 
portance  of  Washington's  personal  attendance  at 

295 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

the  Philadelphia  meeting,  was  unceasing  in  his  ef 
forts  to  remove  the  general's  objections — to  over 
come  his  inertia. 

Even  Madison  was  not  sure  that  Washington 
should  identify  himself  with  a  proceeding  whose  re 
sults  were  so  uncertain.  He  rather  deprecated  the 
urgent  zeal  with  which  Randolph  insisted. 

"  Would  it  not  be  well/'  writes  Madison,  "  for 
him  "  (Washington)  "  to  postpone  his  actual  attend 
ance  until  some  judgment  can  be  formed  of  the  re 
sult  of  the  meeting?  It  ought  not  to  be  wished  by 
any  of  his  friends  that  he  should  participate  in  an 
abortive  proceeding." 

In  this  correspondence,  in  which  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  Randolph  refers  to  the  States  as  "  our 
associated  republics,"  it  clearly  appears  that  Wash 
ington's  attendance  upon  the  Philadelphia  conven 
tion  was  due,  more  than  to  any  other  man,  to  the 
influence  and  the  insistence  of  the  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  Edmund  Randolph. 


296 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 

THE   CONSTITUTION 

Two  of  the  youngest  members  of  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention  of  1787  went  there  with  ready- 
made  constitutions  in  their  pockets.  Alexander 
Hamilton  carried  one,  Edmund  Randolph  the  other. 

Hamilton's  plan  was  so  frankly  aristocratic  and 
monarchical,  in  body  and  soul,  that  it  was  incon 
tinently  cast  aside. 

Randolph's  plan  was  in  form  republican,  in 
spirit  far  from  democratic. 

The  sittings  of  the  convention  began  May  25, 
1787.  There  were  fifty-five  delegates.  Some  of 
these  were  not  present  during  the  first  few  weeks 
of  the  session.  Ten  other  delegates  who  had  been 
elected  did  not  attend  at  all. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  aged  eighty-one,  was  the 
oldest  member  of  the  convention;  the  youngest  was 
Jonathan  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey,  aged  twenty-six. 
Alexander  Hamilton  was  thirty;  James  Madison 
thirty-six. 

General  Washington  was  president  of  the  con 
vention,  and  the  work  which  quiet,  studious, 

297 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

learned,  and  industrious  James  Madison  performed 
fairly  entitled  him  to  the  proud  name  he  afterward 
bore,  "  the  Father  of  the  Constitution." 

Three  great  compromises  had  to  be  made  before 
a  new  government  could  be  established. 

(1)  The  Connecticut  compromise  gave  equality 
to  all  the  States  in  the  Senate,  while  preponderance 
was  given  to  the  larger  States  in  the  House. 

(2)  The  slavery  question,  carrying  a  dispute  be 
tween  free  States  and  slave  States,  was  settled  by 
allowing  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  to  be  counted  in 
the  census,  upon  which  was  to  be  based  representa 
tion  in  Congress. 

(3)  Between  the   agricultural   and   commercial 
States  the  fight  on  the  tariff  and  the  slave  trade 
was  intensely  bitter;  but  it  wras  finally  arranged 
that  Congress  should  control  commerce,  and  the 
importation  of  slaves  should  cease  in  1808. 

By  the  17th  of  September  the  great  conven 
tion  had  completed  its  task — "  the  noblest  work 
ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  mind  and  pur 
pose  of  man,"  according  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 

When  the  secret  convention  threw  open  its 
doors,  and  published  the  result  of  its  labors,  the 
world  saw  a  Constitution  which  was,  in  form,  Ran 
dolph's,  yet,  in  spirit,  so  wholly  foreign  to  its  au 
thor's  intention  and  so  akin  to  Hamilton's,  that  the 
New  York  statesman  (who  had  quit  and  gone  home) 
immediately  ran  to  its  support,  while  Randolph 

298 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

stood  aloof,  doubtful  what  to  do.  Like  George  Ma 
son,  he  refused  to  sign  the  new  Constitution,  and 
was  classed  with  its  opponents. 

By  the  time  the  Virginia  convention  met,  how 
ever,  Randolph  had  decided  to  throw  his  whole 
weight  into  the  scale  for  ratification,  and  George 
Mason  was  denouncing  him  as  a  Benedict  Arnold. 

Luther  Martin,  of  Maryland,  had  quit  the  con 
vention  in  disgust,  because  so  much  power  was  be 
ing  given  the  Central  Government;  and  he  vehe 
mently  opposed  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  in 
the  Maryland  convention. 

Patrick  Henry  had  at  first  been  in  favor  of  the 
movement  toward  a  stronger  government;  but  the 
astounding  treaty  which  John  Jay,  Secretary  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  had  negotiated  with  Spain — a 
treaty  in  which  the  rights  of  the  Southern  people 
were  traded  off  in  exchange  for  commercial  ad 
vantages  to  the  North — created  such  a  bitter  feel 
ing  in  the  South  that  jealousy  of  the  powrer  of 
Congress  became  a  passion.  Southern  men  had 
fought  their  way  to  the  Mississippi,  suffering  all  the 
hardships,  paying  all  the  costs,  asking  no  help  from 
Congress  or  from  other  States.  An  empire  of  al 
most  boundless  wealth  lay  in  the  future  of  the  do 
main  which  had  thus  been  brought  into  the  Union. 
Fort  Jefferson  flew  our  flag  in  the  far  West,  the  vis 
ible  sign  of  the  conquest  Boone  and  Kenyon  and 
Clarke  had  made.  Even  the  British  had  respected 

299 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF   JEFFERSON 

our  rights  to  this  western  land,  and  had  conceded  it 
to  us  by  the  treaty  of  Paris. 

And  now  by  a  cold  spurt  of  the  pen  John  Jay, 
aided  by  a  secret  committee  in  Congress  and  doing 
the  work  in  secret,  virtually  proposed  to  haul  down 
the  flag  and  destroy  for  twenty-five  years  the  value 
of  the  conquest.  The  Mississippi  was  to  be  closed 
to  American  commerce;  Spain  was  to  have  absolute, 
exclusive  control  of  the  stream!  It  was  this  aston 
ishing  bargain  between  the  Northern  men  in  Con 
gress  and  the  Spanish  minister  which  aroused  the 
first  outburst  of  sectional  feeling  after  the  war.  It 
was  this  which  changed  Patrick  Henry  and  so  many 
others,  and  caused  them  to  fear  that  in  the  new  con 
stitutional  government  the  Southern  States  would 
be  nothing  more  than  tributary  provinces  to  the 
North. 

To  Washington's  overwhelming  influence  the 
success  of  the  Philadelphia  convention  had  been 
due.  But  the  verdict  of  Virginia  herself  was  yet  to 
be  rendered.  Whether  the  new  Constitution  would 
be  accepted  by  her  was  extremely  doubtful.  Wash 
ington  put  forth  all  his  strength  in  favor  of  ratifica 
tion,  but  did  not  himself  attend  his  State  conven 
tion. 

The  brunt  of  battle  was  borne  by  James  Mad 
ison  and  Edmund  Eandolph.  It  might  be  altogether 
more  accurate  to  say  that  it  was  borne  by  Edmund 
Eandolph  and  James  Madison. 

300 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

While  the  Governor  had  refused  to  sign  at  Phila* 
delphia,  and  while  he  had  been  extremely  reluctant 
to  give  the  new  Constitution  his  support,  he  had  de 
cided  to  do  so,  and  to  whichever  side  Randolph  went 
he  was  a  tower  of  strength. 

It  may  be  that  there  was  some  defect  in  Ed 
mund  Randolph's  character  which  kept  him  from 
carrying  the  weight  of  such  men  as  George  Mason 
and  James  Madison;  but  any  one  who  will  take  the 
pains  to  study  impartially  the  records  of  that  epoch 
will  be  pretty  sure  to  reach  the  conclusion  that,  in 
mental  equipment,  Edmund  Randolph  equaled  any 
American  of  his  time.  There  was  a  clear  penetra- 
tiveness  about  his  mind,  a  faculty  for  easily  mas 
tering  the  most  complicated  questions,  a  fertility 
of  resource  in  debate,  which  made  up  a  combination 
possessed  by  few  of  his  contemporaries.  When  he 
was  in  his  prime,  he  was  intellectually  a  giant.  The 
disgrace  which  fell  upon  him  during  Washington's 
administration  withered  his  laurels;  otherwise  it  is 
hard  to  account  for  the  fact  that  he  receives  so  lit 
tle  credit  for  the  victory  which  the  Federalists  won 
over  Patrick  Henry  in  the  Virginia  convention  of 
1788. 

The  calmly  contemptuous  manner  in  which  bi 
ographers  pass  by  Randolph  to  laud  Madison  is  first 
cousin  to  the  ignorance,  or  the  injustice,  which 
chiseled  the  name  of  John  Eager  Howard  so  ob 
scurely  on  the  Cowpens  battle-field  monument. 

301 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF   JEFFERSON 

Madison  was  great,  but  he  was  a  man  of  the  closet, 
a  fighter  with  his  pen.  To  claim  him  as  an  orator, 
an  effective  debater  in  a  rough-and-tumble  fight,  a 
match  for  Patrick  Henry  before  an  excited  assem 
bly,  is  partizanship. 

The  foeman  who  was  worthy  of  Henry's  steel  in 
that  convention  was  Edmund  Randolph — himself  a 
master  of  fence,  tried  on  a  hundred  fields. 

A  profound  lawyer,  a  deep  student  of  political 
questions,  fresh  from  constitutional  deliberation 
and  discussion  at  Philadelphia,  familiar  from  court 
house  combats  with  every  peculiarity  of  Henry's 
methods,  a  debater  whose  varied  gifts  of  mind  and 
whose  splendid  physical  advantages  captivated  the 
ear  and  the  eye  of  every  listener,  a  politician  so 
popular  and  so  skilful  that  he  had  but  recently 
given  Eichard  Henry  Lee  a  Waterloo  in  the  race 
for  governor,  Randolph  was  precisely  the  man  we 
would  expect  to  cross  swords  with  Henry  in  this 
great  debate.  Between  these  two,  both  lawyers, 
both  orators,  both  men  accustomed  to  think  on 
their  feet,  both  equipped  with  every  weapon  of  men 
tal  warfare,  we  would  instinctively  feel  that  the 
real  fight  would  take  place. 

James  Madison — five  and  a  half  feet  high,  a  thin 
voice,  awkward  manner,  no  flow  of  language,  no 
single  element  of  the  orator  in  his  make-up,  not 
much  accustomed  to  public  speaking,  trained  rather 
to  work  with  his  pen  and  to  confer  with  a  group 

302 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

around  a  table,  holding  his  hat  in  his  hand  while 
speaking  as  though  uncertain  what  to  do  with  it, 
using  written  notes,  his  voice  so  low  that  the  re 
porter  often  missed  what  he  said,  so  slight  in 
stature  that  it  was  not  easy  for  all  the  delegates  to 
see  him,  ill  and  feeble  and  absent  for  two  days  from 
the  hall — such  is  the  portrait  drawn  by  biographers 
who  declare  that  here  was  the  man  who  bore  off 
the  honors  in  the  great  debate  in  the  Virginia  con 
vention! 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  abroad  during  this  entire 
period,  and  when  he  learned  the  results  of  the 
Philadelphia  convention  he  was  alarmed  and  pain 
fully  disappointed.  He  had  thought  that  the  Ar 
ticles  of  Confederation  needed  amendment,  but  he 
had  not  favored  any  such  revolution  as  this.  There 
was  no  bill  of  rights!  No  safeguards  against  mo 
nopoly;  nothing  to  limit  terms  of  office.  The  Presi 
dent  seemed  to  be  a  poor  edition  of  a  Polish  king, 
and  he  was  not  certain  that  the  good  articles  in  the 
new  Constitution  preponderated  over  the  bad. 

After  the  Constitution  had  been  made,  and  after 
such  friends  as  Washington,  Madison,  and  Randolph 
were  committed  to  it,  he  would  not  oppose  it.  He 
even  became  its  advocate,  but  with  a  condition.  He 
advised  that  nine  States  adopt  it,  and  the  other  four 
hold  off  until  amendments  could  be  made  curing  the 
defects  which  he  pointed  out. 

303 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Had  Virginia  and  New  York  acted  in  concert, 
this  would  have  been  done,  and  they  came  very  near 
to  acting  in  concert.  Clinton,  the  Governor  of  New 
York,  failed  to  get  a  letter  in  time — a  letter  mailed 
in  Richmond  in  December,  1787,  and  which  did  not 
reach  New  York  till  March  7,  1788.  Then,  again, 
New  York's  reply  did  not  reach  Richmond  till  two 
days  before  the  final  vote,  and  lay  unopened  on  the 
table  in  the  legislative  chamber  while  the  great  con 
test  raged  in  another  hall! 

Had  there  been  no  delay,  or  trickery,  with  these 
letters,  the  two  great  States  would  have  understood 
each  other,  would  have  acted  in  concert,  and  would 
have  compelled  amendments  which  even  Edmund 
Randolph  thought  ought  to  be  made. 

While  the  American  colonies  had  always  recog 
nized  their  dependence  on  the  Crown,  yet  they  were 
separate  and  distinct  as  to  each  other,  and  in  local 
matters  each  had  exercised  acts  of  sovereignty. 

Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  Georgia  did  not 
await  the  consent  of  Great  Britain  to  wage  war 
upon  Indians.  They  fought  when  they  pleased  and 
made  peace  when  they  got  ready.  England  never 
sought  to  curb  the  colonies  in  the  exercise  of  this 
high  sovereign  power.  The  colonies  made  formal 
treaties,  just  as  independent  nations  of  Europe  do 
at  this  time.  Allegiance  to  the  Crown  was  con 
ceded,  and  in  foreign  relations  England's  control 
was  admitted;  but  as  to  affairs  here  on  this  con- 

304 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

tinent,  self-government  was  claimed  and  exercised. 
The  Revolution  took  place  when  it  became  clear  to 
the  colonies  that  Great  Britain  meant  to  put  an  end 
to  this  local  self-government. 

After  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  its 
ratification  by  each  State,  each  one  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  most  certainly  considered  itself  a  sover 
eign  State.  The  only  bond  of  union  was  a  common 
cause  and  a  common  danger.  Their  delegations  to 
the  Congress  did  not  bind  them  to  a  confederation 
any  more  than  their  Committees  of  Correspondence 
had  done.  Their  relations  one  to  another  were 
nothing  in  the  world  but  a  hearty  cooperation 
against  a  common  enemy. 

Virginia,  for  instance,  not  only  created  a  repub 
lic  with  a  written  constitution  (the  first  on  record), 
but  created  a  currency,  ratified  the  treaty  with 
France,  and  sent  an  agent  to  Europe  to  contract  a 
loan. 

By  States,  the  Declaration  was  adopted  in  Con 
gress;  by  States,  it  was  ratified  by  the  people.  And, 
since  the  allegiance  to  Great  Britain  had  been 
thrown  off,  there  was  absolutely  no  bond  of  union 
between  the  thirteen  States.  They  had  simply 
agreed  to  confer  with  each  other  on  matters  con 
cerning  the  common  cause,  and  this  conference  was 
held  through  delegates  appointed  for  the  purpose, 
and  the  meeting  of  these  delegates  went  by  the 
name  of  Congress — that  was  all. 
21  305 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF   JEFFERSON 

At  any  time  one  or  more  of  the  States  could 
omit  to  send  delegates,  and  so  drop  out  of  the  con 
ference.  It  was  in  the  conference  of  May,  1775,  that 
the  first  "  Articles  of  Confederation  and  Perpetual 
Union  "  were  agreed  on  in  Philadelphia. 

In  terms  this  was  a  confederacy,  called  "  the 
United  Colonies  of  North  America." 

When  independence  had  been  declared  the  word 
"  Colonies  "  was  changed  to  "  States "  by  act  of 
Congress. 

This  confederacy  existed  until  July  7, 1778,  when 
it  was  abolished  by  the  communities  which  had 
made  it,  and  which  had  declared  that  it  should  be 
perpetual. 

Congress  put  aside  the  old  form  and  adopted 
a  new  set  of  articles  of  "  Confederation  and  Per 
petual  Union."  Again  the  vote  was  by  States  in 
Congress,  and  by  States  on  the  question  of  rati 
fication. 

Not  till  1781  did  Maryland  come  into  this  new 
confederation.  Where  had  she  been  between  1778 
and  1781?  What  was  her  political  status?  She 
was  no  longer  a  colony  of  Great  Britain.  She  was 
not  a  member  of  the  new  confederation.  And  the 
old  confederation  had  been  abolished.  If  she  was 
not  a  sovereign,  independent  State,  what  was 
she? 

Then  Congress  orders  the  convention  of  1787  to 
revise  these  Articles  of  Confederation.  A  new  Con- 

306 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

stitution  is  made,  in  violation  of  instructions.  These 
are  submitted  back  to  the  States,  acting  as  States 
— separately  and  in  convention. 

The  new  Government  is  to  go  into  effect  when 
ever  ratified  by  nine  States. 

What  right  have  nine  States  to  break  up  the 
old  Government?  The  right  of  partners  to  draw 
out  of  the  partnership  business. 

Nine  States  do  ratify — others  do  not. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  the  new  Government  to 
those  which  have  not  ratified? 

The  old  confederation  is  destroyed,  the  new 
Government  goes  on  without  them — those  outside 
are  independent  States,  just  as  Mexico,  South 
America,  and  Canada  are  independent  of  the  new 
Government. 

WThen  George  Washington  was  elected  Presi 
dent  Rhode  Island  and  North  Carolina  were  not  in 
the  Union.  Were  they  still  in  the  old  confedera 
tion?  That  had  been  abolished.  If  not  sovereign, 
independent  States,  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  new 
Government  would  deal  with  other  foreign  States, 
what  were  they? 

At  the  time  the  delegates  to  the  Convention  of 
1787  were  disregarding  instructions  and  making  a 
new  Constitution,  it  was  uncertain  how  far  their 
work  would  be  approved.  In  the  first  draft  of  the 
paper  the  language  used  was  the  same  as  that 
which  had  been  used  formerly. 

307 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF   JEFFERSON 

The  old  Articles  of  Confederation  bound  thir 
teen  colonies  by  name. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  claimed  the  in 
dependence  of  thirteen  States  by  name. 

The  new  Articles  of  Confederation  bound  thir 
teen  States  by  name. 

In  the  treaty  of  peace,  Great  Britain  recognized 
the  independence  of  thirteen  different  States  by 
name,  and  recognized  the  right  of  each  State  to  deal 
with  the  estates,  rights,  and  properties  of  British 
subjects  in  each  State. 

The  first  draft  of  the  Constitution  of  1787  used 
the  words,  "  We,  the  People  of  the  United  States 
of  " — naming  the  same  thirteen  States  which  had 
been  "  United  Colonies."  But  inasmuch  as  no  one 
could  tell  which  of  the  States  might  ratify,  it  was 
decided  to  leave  off  the  names.  The  reason  was  of 
the  simplest  and  the  best;  delegates  could  not  pos 
sibly  know  in  advance  what  States  vould  agree  to 
the  radical  changes  they  had  made. 

Yet  upon  this  failure  to  name  in  advance  the 
States  which  would  adopt  the  new  Government  in 
place  of  the  old  Daniel  Webster  built  up  a  great 
constitutional  argument. 

To  each  State  it  was  a  matter  of  choice  whether 
to  go  into  the  new  arrangement  or  to  stay  out;  and 
the  people,  except  as  they  constituted  the  separate 
States,  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it. 

The  very  delegates  who  made  the  Constitution 
308 


THE    CONSTITUTION 

and  signed  it  used  the  same  form  of  signature  by 
States  which  had  been  in  use  all  the  time.  Nowhere 
was  there  the  slightest  indication  that  anything 
was  contemplated  save  a  compact  between  States. 


309 


CHAPTER    XXXIV 
IN  WASHINGTON'S  CABINET 

MR.  JEFFERSON  had  not  reached  Monticello  be 
fore  he  received  from  President  Washington  a 
pressing  invitation  to  enter  the  Cabinet  as  Secre 
tary  of  State.  Had  he  been  free  to  choose  the  serv 
ice  he  liked  best  he  would  have  returned  to  France. 
Yielding  to  the  pressure  brought  to  bear,  he  con 
sented  to  accept  the  Cabinet  position,  and  in 
March,  1790,  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  its 
duties. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  antagonisms  were  to 
spring  up  during  this  first  administration,  which 
were  destined  to  leave  the  republic  into  two  great 
divisions  politically,  it  is  a  great  pity  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  was  so  late  in  reaching  the  field.  He  did  not 
get  a  fair  start. 

President  Washington  had  appointed  Alexan 
der  Hamilton  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  and  this 
statesman  had  so  much  force  of  character,  so  clear 
a  conception  of  what  he  wanted  to  do,  such  strength 
of  will,  energy  of  intellect,  and  such  skill  in  man 
aging  men,  that  he  had  well-nigh  finished  his  task, 
won  his  race,  before  Jefferson  entered  the  contest. 

310 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

Hamilton's  great  purpose  was  to  create  a  strong 
Government,  one  which  would  travel  on  its  own 
legs  without  dependence  upon  the  States.  Into  the 
hands  of  the  central  power  he  washed  to  draw  the 
attributes  of  national  sovereignty — consolidating 
the  Union.  To  give  it  permanence  and  predomi 
nance,  he  wished  to  bottom  it  upon  the  support  of 
the  rich;  and  to  win  this  support  he  meant  to  run 
the  Government  in  their  favor.  He  had  no  faith  in 
the  people,  was  in  no  sense  a  man  of  the  people. 
England  was  his  model.  He  believed  that  the  Brit 
ish  Constitution  was  the  most  perfect  the  world 
had  ever  known.  As  far  as  possible,  he  wished  ours 
to  resemble  that.  The  President  could  easily  be 
made  to  wield  a  greater  power  than  a  king — the 
sixty-eighth  number  of  The  Federalist  to  the  con 
trary  notwithstanding.  The  Senate,  judiciously 
nursed,  might  come  to  be  the  American  House  of 
Lords.  The  House  of  Representatives  could  be  con 
trolled,  as  the  British  House  of  Commons  was,  by 
class  interest. 

The  Constitution  forbade  the  creation  of  a  peer 
age;  but,  after  all,  a  peerage  is  but  a  privileged 
class,  elevated  by  law  or  custom  above  the  vulgar, 
indiscriminate  herd.  What  had  been  done  by  law 
or  custom  in  all  the  governments  of  the  Old  World 
could  be  done  in  the  New.  We  might  not  call  a  citi 
zen  Duke,  Count,  Lord,  or  Marquis,  but  that  was 
a  small  matter.  The  gist  of  the  thing  was  to  create 

311 


LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF  JEFFERSON 

the  privileged  class.  This  having  been  done,  the 
good  results  would  soon  follow  here,  as  in  the  Old 
World.  The  Government  having  made  its  combina 
tion  with  the  rich,  could  rely  upon  the  support  of 
the  rich;  and  the  rich  would  be  here  what  they 
were  elsewhere  in  the  modern  world — the  strong. 

Class  rule  could  not  be  based  here  on  the  land 
monopoly,  as  in  England,  or  upon  monopoly  of  dig 
nities  and  outrageous  feudal  privileges,  as  had  been 
done  in  France. 

But  it  could  be  done,  nevertheless. 

Give  to  the  manufacturing  class  the  right  to  tax 
the  community  for  their  own  benefit;  give  to  the 
speculators  a  direct  connection  with  the  national 
treasury;  create  a  national  bank,  whereby  a  few 
capitalists  should  enjoy  the  enormous,  sovereign 
power  of  controlling  the  currency  of  the  nation. 
Let  these  things  be  done,  and  out  of  these  germs 
would  grow  a  modern  feudalism,  a  financial  aris 
tocracy,  which  might  one  day  laugh  to  scorn  the 
wealth  of  hereditary  dukes,  trample  upon  the  feel 
ings  and  the  rights  of  the  unprivileged  citizen  with 
all  the  contemptuous  indifference  of  a  marquis  of 
the  old  regime,  and  dominate  courts,  legislatures, 
and  cabinets  as  few  orders  of  nobility  have  ever 
dared  to  do. 

"The  people!  Why,  the  people  is  a  great 
beast!"  cried  Hamilton,  meaning,  of  course,  all  of 
the  human  race  who  had  not  risen  above  the  com- 

312 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

mon  herd.  Greater  scorn  for  the  common  herd  few 
mortals  have  had  than  Alexander  Hamilton. 

No!  He  could  not  create  such  an  aristocracy  as 
that  of  France  or  England,  but  yet  aristocracy 
could  be  created.  Let  the  laws  discriminate  be 
tween  man  and  man,  class  and  class;  throw  all  of 
the  power  of  the  Government  to  the  aid  of  one  class, 
and  against  the  other,  and  the  result  would  be  class 
rule.  And  what  is  aristocracy  but  the  rule  of  a 
class? 

Let  the  English  system  of  class  legislation  be 
introduced  into  the  framework  of  the  American  re 
public,  and  the  inevitable  result  would  be  that  our 
Government  would  gradually  become  just  what 
England's  was,  in  all  essential  respects.  A  finan 
cial  aristocracy  would  arise  out  of  Government 
privileges  and  discriminations.  Having  sprung 
into  life  by  reason  of  legislative  favoritism,  the  con 
tinuance  of  class  legislation  would  be  a  matter  of 
self-preservation  to  them.  Thus  they  would  de 
pend  on  Government  for  existence,  they  would  iden 
tify  themselves  with  the  Government,  they  would 
sustain  it  in  order  to  sustain  their  own  advantages, 
and  thus  there  would  be  in  America  what  there  was 
in  the  Old  World — a  copartnership  between  govern 
ment  and  privilege.  In  this  way  the  interest  of  the 
moneyed  class  and  the  Government  would  become 
identical.  Revolt  against  the  dominant  class  would 
become  treason  to  the  Government.  Patriotism 

313 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

would  mean  love  of  class  rule — for  class  rule  and 
government  would  have  become  synonymous.  Thus 
entrenched  behind  the  safeguards  of  law  and  of 
love,  who  could  ever  touch  a  hair  of  its  head? 

As  the  priesthood  can  not  be  assailed  without 
raising  an  outcry  that  God  is  being  attacked,  so  the 
rule  of  the  privileged  class  could  never  be  threat 
ened  without  provoking  the  charge  that  the  Gov 
ernment  was  endangered. 

In  the  Constitutional  Convention  Elbridge  Ger 
ry,  of  Massachusetts,  had  said: 

"  All  the  evils  we  experience  flow  from  excess 
of  democracy." 

Washington  had  thought  that  common  soldiers 
should  serve  their  country  for  their  victuals  and 
clothes.  Only  the  officers  should  be  paid.  He  re 
gretted  that  the  law  did  not  allow  him  to  lay  five 
hundred  lashes  upon  the  back  of  the  common  sol 
dier  who  broke  rules.  One  hundred  lashes,  the 
legal  limit,  was  not  enough. 

This  was  the  spirit  of  the  leading  men  who 
threw  aside  the  old  confederation  and  made  the 
new  Constitution.  It  is  all  a  mistake  to  say  that 
they  meant  to  establish  a  rule  of  the  people.  On 
the  contrary,  they  meant  to  make  it  impossible  for 
the  people  to  control  the  Government. 

In  pursuance  of  this  idea  they  exhausted  their 
ingenuity  to  keep  the  election  of  Presidents  from 
the  direct  vote  of  the  masses.  They  meant  that 

314 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

the  electoral  colleges  should  choose  independently 
of  the  people.  They  meant  that  the  Senate  should 
be  outside  the  control  of  the  people. 

And  they  meant  that  the  judiciary  should  be 
absolutely  independent  of  the  people. 

Men  whose  purpose  it  is  to  establish  a  democ 
racy,  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  do  not  go  about  it  in  that  way. 

But  men  whose  determination  it  is  to  create  a 
centralized  government  in  which  the  form  of  de 
mocracy  is  preserved,  while  all  power  belongs  to 
the  privileged  classes,  could  not,  under  all  the 
circumstances,  have  framed  an  instrument  better 
suited  to  the  purpose  than  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

Hamilton's  system  depended  upon  three  great 
measures:  Protection  to  manufacturers  at  the  ex 
pense  of  agriculture;  a  funding  system  which 
should  league  the  speculators  with  the  national 
treasury;  a  banking  system  in  which  a  few  should 
exercise  the  sovereign  power  of  controlling  the 
currency  of  the  republic. 

He  had  hardly  taken  off  his  hat  and  settled 
himself  in  his  office  before  he  began  to  write  laws 
to  please  the  rich,  to  enlist  the  rich,  to  additionally 
enrich  the  rich. 

By  his  tariff  system  he  proposed  to  conceal 
from  the  citizen  the  true  amount  of  his  taxes,  and 
to  levy  tribute  upon  the  great  mass  of  the  people 

315 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

in  the  interest  of  a  special  class.  Naturally  he 
expected  this  class,  if  not  already  the  richest,  to 
become  so  by  operation  of  law;  and  as  the  law  was 
the  source  of  their  fortune,  he  expected  the  crea 
ture  to  revere  the  creator. 

Pennsylvania  had  already  set  the  example  of 
taxing  the  entire  community  for  the  benefit  of  a 
class.  Her  tariff  act  of  1785,  copied  from  English 
precedent,  had  already  shown  what  a  demand  there 
was  for  class  legislation;  and  Mr.  Hamilton,  living 
in  a  commercial  center  like  New  York,  was  far  too 
shrewd  to  underrate  its  strength.  His  position  on 
funding  and  on  the  assumption  of  the  State  debts 
by  the  National  Government  drew  to  him  every 
speculator  in  the  land  who  dabbled  in  scrip  or 
hungered  for  bonds. 

His  national  bank  measure  not  only  fascinated 
the  capitalists  of  the  cities,  but  gladdened  the 
hearts  of  anti-democrats  everywhere,  for  it  was  the 
first  great  step  forward  in  the  boundless  region  of 
implied  powers. 

Juggling  with  the  two  phrases  "  general  wel 
fare  "  and  "  implied  powers,"  he  made  blank  paper 
of  the  remainder  of  the  Constitution.  If  those 
words  meant  all  he  claimed,  it  had  been  a  folly  to 
waste  time  writing  the  rest  of  the  instrument. 

Had  Jefferson  received  his  appointment  at  the 
same  time  as  Hamilton,  if  the  contest  between  the 
two  had  begun  with  a  fair  start,  it  is  possible  that 

316 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

even  then  the  impetuosity  and  daring  of  Hamilton 
might  have  prevailed.  There  were  many  resources 
at  his  command,  many  a  persuasive  inducement  by 
which  he  could  reach  the  wavering  Congressman. 
And  as  Hamilton  openly  avowed  his  belief  that 
corruption  was  a  necessary  engine  of  government, 
he  would  no  doubt  have  corrupted  all  who  were  ap 
proachable.  At  any  rate,  Jefferson  came  too  late. 
Hamilton's  plans  were  all  under  headway.  Some 
of  them  had  been  adopted.  The  President  and  the 
Congress  had  already  formed  the  habit  of  doing 
.as  Hamilton  advised.  His  cohorts  had  been  mar 
shaled,  organized,  and  fed  on  victory.  To  defeat 
him  now  would  be  doubly  difficult.  Hamilton  had 
called  a  lobby  into  existence;  and  this  uncrowned 
monarch  was  dictating  legislation. 

Not  realizing  the  trend  of  Hamilton's  meas 
ures,  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  at  once  make  any  op 
position.  On  the  contrary,  he  allowed  himself  to 
be  drawrn  into  Hamilton's  plans.  There  was  a  dead 
lock  in  Congress  on  the  subject  of  assumption  and 
of  the  location  of  the  national  capital. 

Southern  men  wanted  the  Federal  city  built  in 
the  South,  and  did  not  want  assumption.  North 
ern  men  claimed  the  Federal  city,  but  also  wanted 
assumption. 

Here  was  a  chance  to  log-roll.  Jefferson  was 
made  to  believe  that  the  Government  was  in  dan 
ger  of  going  to  pieces  over  this  dispute;  and,  being 

317 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

appealed  to  by  Hamilton,  he  agreed  to  use  his  in 
fluence  to  effect  a  compromise. 

There  was  a  dinner,  a  coming  together  of  South 
ern  members  and  Northern  members,  a  sociable 
sipping  of  generous  wine,  a  basking  in  the  beams 
of  Jeffersonian  hospitality,  a  thawing  out  of  frozen 
geniality,  and  the  birth  of  a  healthy  desire  to  come 
to  terms. 

The  South  gave  assumption  to  the  North;  the 
North  gave  the  Federal  capital  to  the  South.  So 
the  crisis  passed;  and  Mr.  Jefferson  felt  rewarded 
for  his  trouble  in  the  belief  that  he  had  helped  to 
save  the  Union. 

Afterward,  when  he  looked  back  at  this  epi 
sode,  his  serene  temper  was  sorely  tried,  for  it 
dawned  upon  him  that  he  had  been  egregiously 
duped  by  Hamilton. 

The  South  gained  Washington  city,  and  what 
the  national  capital  has  ever  been  worth  to  us  it 
would  be  hard  to  say. 

On  the  ^subject  of  the  bank,  there  was  a  battle 
royal  in  the  Cabinet.  Edmund  Randolph,  Attorney- 
General,  as  well  as  Jefferson,  opposed  it  as  not 
authorized  by  the  Constitution. 

Hamilton  argued  that  it  was  a  fiscal  agency 
which  the  Government  had  the  "  implied  power  " 
to  create.  General  Knox,  Secretary  of  War,  sided 
with  Hamilton,  as  he  apparently  would  have  done 
on  any  proposition  whatever. 

318 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

The  President  was  in  doubt,  but  finally  signed 
the  bill. 

Thus  Hamilton's  policies  had  been  successful. 
His  system  was  complete,  and  was  in  operation. 
Time  would  ripen  the  harvest.  His  funding  sys 
tem  had  created  a  class  which  would  stand  upon  a 
different  footing  from  all  others.  It  would  own  a 
mortgage  upon  the  Government,  upon  the  whole 
Union.  To  the  extent  of  this  mortgage,  it  would 
pay  no  taxes.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  fatten  upon 
the  taxes  of  others.  If  to  the  individual  citizen 
debt  is  bondage,  giving  to  the  creditor  moral  and 
legal  power  over  the  man  who  owes  him,  the  pub 
lic  debt,  by  operation  of  the  same  principle,  would 
put  the  Government  under  the  influence  of  those 
who  held  the  mortgage  on  it.  The  public  debt 
being  thus  an  immense  advantage  to  the  class 
which  owned  it,  would  never  be  paid.  Self-inter 
est  would  make  it  permanent,  and  keep  it  growing. 

Just  as,  in  England,  the  moneyed  class  who  had 
bought  up  the  debt,  and  who  sat  back  at  ease  liv 
ing  off  the  taxes  paid  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
people,  constituted  a  money  power  whose  influence 
with  the  Government  kept  the  debt  unpaid  and 
increased  it  as  far  as  was  safe,  so  in  America,  the 
tree  being  planted,  nothing  was  necessary  but  to 
tend  it — the  fruit  would  inevitably  be  the  same. 
The  owners  of  the  public  debt,  exempted  from  tax 
ation  and  enriched  by  the  taxes  of  others;  the  man- 

319 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

ufacturers,  exempted  from  foreign  competition,  at 
the  expense  of  the  nation  at  large;  the  national 
banker,  enjoying  the  vast  advantage  of  controlling 
the  currency  of  the  nation;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  American  labor  was  made  subject  to  the 
competition  of  the  world  by  liberal  immigration 
laws,  and  American  agriculture  made  to  compete 
with  ryots  of  India,  the  fellahs  of  Egypt,  the  serfs 
of  Europe,  the  peons  of  Mexico,  and  non-paid  labor 
generally — what  better  foundation  for  inequality 
could  be  laid? 

Wealth  might  fabulously  increase,  but  there 
would  be  no  just  distribution.  Power  might  ama 
zingly  develop,  but  there  would  be  no  equilibrium. 
Progress  might  smash  all  records,  but  it  would  not 
be  general. 

Everything  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  If 
it  be  right  to  run  a  government  in  the  interest  of  a 
selected  class;  if  it  be  right  to  allow  the  privileged 
to  use  the  machinery  of  legislation  to  plunder  the 
unprivileged;  if  it  be  right  to  make  the  corruption 
of  trusted  agents  an  incident  to  the  government  of 
the  principals,  then  Alexander  Hamilton  deserves 
high  rank  among  statesmen  and  a  loving  remem 
brance  with  posterity.  For  it  was  he  who  first  ar 
ranged  the  coalition  between  the  national  treasury 
and  the  money  power;  it  was  he  who  committed  the 
Government  to  the  policy  of  taxing  one  industry  to 
build  up  another;  he  who  surrendered  to  a  favored 

320 


IN   WASHINGTON'S   CABINET 

class  the  sovereign  prerogative  of  creating  a  cur 
rency;  he  who  first  used  corrupt  practises  to  secure 
legislation. 

As  surely  as  harvest  is  due  to  sower,  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  the  father  of  plutocracy,  the  trust, 
and  the  lobby. 

"  The  people  are  a  great  beast,"  said  the  apos 
tle;  and  one  of  his  disciples  exclaimed,  "  The  pub 
lic  be  damned! " 

The  spirit  of  the  two  expressions  is  precisely  the 
same;  and  the  favored,  protected,  law-exempt  rail 
way  king  who  could  use  with  impunity  the  last  ex 
pression  was  the  natural  product  of  the  system  of 
the  statesman  who  used  the  first. 


22  321 


CHAPTER   XXXV 

THE     GENET     EPISODE 

DETERMINED  to  make  our  Government  resemble 
the  English,  it  was  a  darling  project  with  Hamil 
ton,  Jay,  and  other  Federalists  of  that  type  to  bring 
about  friendly  relations  with  Great  Britain. 

It  was  no  easy  task.  England  was  sore  over 
the  loss  of  her  colonies.  She  was  aching  to  revenge 
herself  upon  America  and  upon  France.  She  re 
fused  to  give  up  the  forts  on  the  Northwest  fron 
tier.  As  Jefferson  demonstrated  in  a  masterly 
state  paper,  her  excuses  were  flimsy,  untenable. 
She  could  not  answer  his  argument,  and  did  not 
try.  She  simply  held  on  to  the  forts.  From  these 
forts  Indians  went  forth,  fired  with  hatred  and 
whisky,  to  make  war  upon  American  settlements. 

She  claimed  and  exercised  the  right  to  halt  our 
ships  upon  the  seas,  to  search  them,  and  to  drag 
from  our  decks  such  sailors  as  her  navy  might 
need.  Her  pretense  was  the  retaking  of  her  own 
seamen;  her  practise  was  to  take  whom  she  pleased. 

But  the  Federalists  curbed  their  indignation; 
from  them  no  loud  protest  was  heard.  And  when 
France  sent  over  her  minister,  Genet,  and  the  time 

322 


THE    GENET   EPISODE 

came  when  our  Government  had  to  show  its  hand, 
it  suddenly  appeared  more  amiable  to  our  late  foe 
than  to  our  late  friend. 

Without  exception,  our  historians  have  treated 
the  Genet  episode  from  the  standpoint  of  the  old 
Federalist  party.  Therefore,  the  average  Ameri 
can  gets  an  impression  so  misleading  as  to  be 
wholly  false. 

The  democracy  of  France,  like  the  democracy  of 
America,  had  made  war  upon  a  king,  and  had  estab 
lished  a  republic.  In  our  struggle,  French  money 
and  French  blood  had  been  poured  out  in  our  be 
half.  It  was  not  the  money  of  the  King  of  France; 
it  was  not  the  blood  of  the  King  of  France;  it  was 
the  blood  and  the  money  of  the  people  of  France. 
The  powerful  undertow  of  sympathy  with  America 
which  had  dragged  the  French  minister  off  his  feet, 
and  made  the  French  alliance  imperative,  came, 
not  from  the  torpid  King,  but  from  the  aroused 
people.  Every  time  the  royal  pen  was  laid  to  paper 
in  America's  behalf  it  was  done  under  protest. 

These  people  who  had  rushed  to  America's  aid 
in  the  darkest  hour  of  her  Revolution  had  now  ac 
complished  a  revolution  of  their  own.  America's 
example  had  encouraged  them,  inspired  them, 
shown  them  the  way.  Now  that  the  French  mon 
archy  was  down  and  democracy  triumphant,  Great 
Britain  had  chosen  to  interfere,  had  made  the 
King's  cause  her  own,  and  had  consecrated  her- 

323 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

self  to  the  unholy  purpose  of  restoring  in  Europe 
the  tyranny  of  aristocracy  and  King.1  Great  Brit 
ain  had  blockaded  France  and  dismissed  from  Lon 
don  the  French  minister.  War  was  begun  before 
the  French  Republic  ever  published  her  declaration. 

What  more  natural  than  that  the  French,  at 
this  crisis,  should  look  to  the  American  people 
for  sympathy  and  help!  There  were  the  two 
republics;  their  common  enemy  was  monarchical 
England.  Without  French  aid,  the  American  re 
public  could  not  have  been  established.  America 
still  owed  France  a  huge  debt — partly  of  gratitude, 
partly  of  prosaic  cash. 

And  France,  in  sending  Genet  to  America,  vir 
tually  said  to  us  what  Beauregard's  messenger  said 
to  Johnston  on  the  eve  of  Manassas,  "  If  you  want 
to  help  me,  now  is  the  time! " 

Genet  came.  He  was  young;  he  was  untutored 
in  statecraft  and  the  ways  of  diplomacy;  he  was 
fresh  from  scenes  of  democratic  excitement;  the 
gospel  of  brotherly  love  was  burning  hotly  within 
him.  Never  for  one  moment  did  he  doubt  that  the 
heart  of  the  American  people  beat  warmly  for  the 
young  French  Republic.  He  expected  to  be  re 
ceived  with  open  arms,  with  the  gladdest  smile  of 
greeting,  with  the  closest  hug  of  fraternity. 

Had  not  young  Lafayette  broken  out  of  con- 

1  See  full  account  in  the  author's  The  Story  of  France,  and  his  Na 
poleon. 

324 


THE    GENET   EPISODE 

ventional  restraints  in  France,  and  hastened  to 
the  arms  of  Washington?  Had  not  young  Rocham- 
beau  led  the  lines  at  the  final  assault  at  York- 
town? 

Were  we  not  all  brothers  in  the  holy  cause 
of  democracy?  Genet  assumed  that  we  were,  im 
plicitly  believed  that  we  were,  unhesitatingly  acted 
upon  the  conviction  that  we  were. 

For  at  Charleston,  where  he  landed  first,  there 
was  nothing  to  correct  his  impressions.  Everybody 
was  glad  to  see  him.  Shouts  of  welcome  rose 
around  him.  Open  arms  were  thrown  about  him  in 
the  brotherly  embrace.  Ovations  filled  his  young 
heart  with  patriotic  joy. 

Commissions  to  send  out  privateers  against  the 
British?  Why,  of  course.  Governor  Moultrie  was 
the  same  old  hero  who  had  won  that  first  victory 
over  the  common  enemy;  Governor  Moultrie  would 
sign  commissions  to  fit  out  the  privateers.  Cheer 
fully. 

And  so  he  did,  the  treaty  with  France  appear 
ing  to  bind  the  Americans  to  do  that  very  thing. 

Privateers  put  to  sea,  and  British  commerce  be 
gan  to  suffer.  Genet  set  out  for  Philadelphia,  by 
land.  His  journey  was  like  a  royal  progress.  The 
hearts  of  the  people  were  with  him.  Where  else 
could  they  be?  Could  America  so  soon  forget?  Did 
she  have  no  gratitude?  Was  she  incapable  of  gen 
erous  enthusiasm  for  France  in  her  efforts  to  es- 

325 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

tablish  a  republic?  Had  America  no  responsive 
chord  which  might  be  touched  by  the  struggles  of 
other  people  for  political  freedom? 

The  historians  are  cold.  They  sneer  at  Genet. 
They  mock  his  references  to  liberty,  equality,  fra 
ternity.  They  heap  ridicule  upon  his  "  sentimental 
appeals."  "  Sentiment,"  it  would  seem,  is,  his 
torically,  a  felony.  French  enthusiasm  for  our 
struggles  might  have  been  natural,  even  com 
mendable;  but  the  idea  was  preposterous  that 
Americans  should  have  enthusiasm  for  struggling 
France.  This  historical  tone  grows  out  of  the 
necessity  of  the  case.  The  British  faction  dom 
inated  Washington's  Cabinet;  the  British  faction 
set  its  face  like  flint  against  Genet;  the  British 
faction  was  able  to  convince  Washington  that  he 
ought  to  ignore  what  France  had  done  for  us,  and 
to  virtually  say  to  Great  Britain  and  the  French, 
"  Fight  it  out  between  yourselves." 

So  that  when  Genet  reached  Philadelphia,  and 
had  lapped  himself  in  the  luxury  of  unbounded  en 
thusiasm  there,  and  then  went  into  the  presiden 
tial  presence,  expecting  his  official  welcome  to  be 
of  the  very  warmest  kind,  he  suddenly  encountered 
an  iceberg.  He  was  enlightened  as  to  the  situation 
with  cruel  candor  and  promptitude. 

Washington's  greeting  was  formal,  and  cer 
tainly  not  warm.  Washington's  proclamation  was, 
practically,  a  repudiation  of  the  treaty.  Washing- 

326 


THE   GENET   EPISODE 

ton's  orders  as  to  the  privateers  recognized  no 
obligations  to  France,  and  indicated  no  friend 
ship. 

Genet's  disillusion  was  complete  and  most 
painful. 

The  struggling  French  Republic,  like  the  thir 
teen  American  colonies,  was  sorely  in  need  of 
money.  Genet  asked  for  no  gifts.  The  return  of 
the  donations  the  French  had  made  to  aid  the  strug 
gling  colonies  was  not  expected;  but  Genet  did  ask 
that  the  subsequent  sums,  which  had  been  loaned, 
might  now  be  repaid. 

Hamilton  refused.  The  debts  were  not  due,  and 
it  would  be  inconvenient  to  pay  them.  Should 
America  discharge  the  debts  before  they  were  due 
Great  Britain  might  take  offense! 

Can  any  American  citizen  of  the  present  day 
read  that  statement  and  not  feel  ashamed? 

But  this  was  not  all.  Genet,  deeply  hurt  at  the 
refusal  to  pay,  and  at  the  reason  assigned,  pro 
posed  to  transfer  the  French  claims  to  American 
merchants  in  exchange  for  food  and  clothing  for 
the  needy  soldiers  of  France,  who,  barefooted,  in 
rags,  and  almost  unfed,  were  following  the  flag  in 
the  cause  of  liberty,  just  as  the  poor  American  sol 
diers  had  done  only  a  few  years  before. 

And  Washington's  Government,  dominated  by 
Hamilton,  refused  to  allow  Genet  that  poor  privi 
lege! 

327 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Great  Britain  might  not  like  it! 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  young  Genet  lost  his 
temper? 

The  American  of  our  day  who  can  read  this 
chapter  in  our  history,  and  be  proud  of  it,  will  also 
be  proud  of  the  attitude  of  our  Government  when 
Great  Britain,  partly  by  the  help  of  supplies  bought 
from  us  in  violation  of  treaty,  was  trampling  the 
life  out  of  the  South  African  republics.  But  no 
other  citizen  can  be  proud  of  it. 

Yes,  young  Genet  lost  his  temper;  and,  like  all 
men  in  a  passion,  did  things  that  hurt  his  cause. 
He  gave  John  Jay,  Hamilton,  Rufus  King,  and  other 
Federalists  the  excuse  to  say  that  he  had  insulted 
the  President.  Genet  appealed  to  Washington  to 
correct  the  slander,  and  Washington  tightened  the 
mantle  of  presidential  dignity  around  him,  refusing 
to  notice  the  appeal. 

Democratic  societies  had  sprung  up  everywhere, 
and  Genet  had  multitudes  of  friends;  but  he  could 
not  afford  to  match  himself  against  Washington, 
nor  did  he  try.  He  protested  as  well  as  he  could, 
but  he  was  powerless.  Jefferson  was  secretly  in 
sympathy  with  him  almost  to  the  last;  but  even 
Jefferson  realized  that  the  issue  could  not  be  met 
on  the  ground  where  the  Federalists  had  put  it. 
He  abandoned  Genet  to  his  fate,  which,  indeed,  was 
not  personally  ruinous,  for  the  young  man  won  the 
heart  and  hand  of  the  daughter  of  Governor  Clin- 

328 


THE    GENET   EPISODE 

ton  of  New  York,  and  settled  down  to  the  life  of  a 
private  citizen. 

Not  only  were  the  British  assured  that  this  Gov 
ernment  would  pay  all  damages  inflicted  by  the 
privateers  fitted  out  from  our  ports,  but  they  were 
permitted  to  seize  French  property  on  American 
vessels,  as  well  as  American  property  on  American 
vessels,  if  such  property  chanced  to  be  foodstuffs 
on  the  way  to  hungry  France! 

Worse  than  all — during  the  entire  period  cov 
ered  by  the  controversy  with  Genet,  British  war- 
vessels  continued  to  capture  American  seamen 
wherever  and  whenever  they  could,  and  to  impress 
them  to  service,  exile,  and  death  on  English  ships! 

Greater  humiliations  were  never  endured  than 
those  we  bore  in  the  efforts  to  make  terms  with 
England.  We  broke  with  a  true  and  tried  friend 
to  prepare  the  way  for  alliance  with  an  inveterate 
enemy.  The  reason  assigned  by  Hamilton,  Jay,  and 
the  Federalists  generally,  was  that  another  war 
with  Great  Britain  would  ruin  us. 

To  keep  peace  we  inflicted  upon  ourselves  and 
upon  France  cruel  wrong — and  yet  we  had  England 
to  fight,  after  all! 

Had  we  kept  faith,  had  we  been  true  to  treaty, 
had  we  paid  France  our  debts  of  gratitude  and  of 
money,  who  can  say  that  it  might  not  have  been 
better  for  us  as  well  as  for  France? 

Great  Britain  divided  her  foes — thanks  to  Ham- 
329 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

ilton.  She  fought  France,  and  kept  us  from  aiding 
her.  And  then  she  fought  us,  when  France  could 
not  help  us.  Had  we  made  common  cause,  she 
might  not  have  attacked  either.  Thus  each  of  the 
three  nations  suffered  because  of  the  broken  treaty. 

Before  the  Revolution  there  had,  of  course,  been 
no  national  political  parties.  Whigs  and  Tories 
there  were,  and  divisions  on  local  colonial  ques 
tions.  During  the  war  all  Americans  who  fought 
for  independence  were  classed  as  Whigs,  those  op 
posed  as  Tories.  When  the  new  Constitution  was 
on  trial  those  who  favored  it  were  called  Federal 
ists,  those  opposed  Anti-Federalists.  By  the  time 
Jefferson  had  taken  in  the  full  significance  of  the 
Hamilton  policies,  an  opposition  lifted  its  head, 
and  took  the  name  Republican.  By  that  name  he 
himself  always  referred  to  his  party.  Its  founder 
believed  that  Hamilton  and  his  followers  were  aim 
ing  at  monarchy.  This  did  not  necessarily  mean 
that  Jefferson  thought  Hamilton  aimed  at  setting 
up  a  king;  it  meant  that  republican  ideals,  demo 
cratic  principles,  were  being  put  aside.  If  this 
tendency  was  to  be  checked,  if  the  monarchical 
spirit  was  to  be  kept  out,  then  organized  opposition 
was  necessary.  To  organize  this  opposition  and 
to  dedicate  the  new  Government  to  the  true  re 
publican  ideals,  became  the  mission  of  Jefferson's 
life. 

And  therein  consists  his  greatness. 
330 


THE   GENET   EPISODE 

Edmund  Randolph  was  perhaps  quite  as  brainy 
a  man  as  Jefferson;  Patrick  Henry  in  some  respects 
excelled  him;  Madison,  in  his  own  narrower  limits, 
was  as  efficient;  but  in  combination  of  high  quali 
ties,  and  in  consecration  of  lofty  purpose,  none  of 
these  bear  comparison  to  Jefferson. 

With  him,  as  with  Hamilton,  the  purpose  was  to 
found  a  system,  establish  a  creed,  shape  the  future 
of  generations  yet  unborn.  To  do  this  was  a  duty, 
a  mission.  He  had  no  option;  it  was  work  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  law  of  his  nature.  He  believed  in 
the  people,  was  willing  to  trust  the  people;  the 
name  of  which  he  grew  proudest  was  "  the  man  of 
the  people."  At  all  points  his  system,  his  creed, 
collided  with  that  of  Hamilton.  The  things  Ham 
ilton  was  seeking  to  do  were  those  which  Jefferson 
most  abhorred. 

He  did  not  want  Europe  repeated  here.  Above 
all  things,  he  dreaded  that.  Had  American  pio 
neers  fled  to  this  continent  to  escape  the  abuses  of 
European  systems  only  to  have  those  abuses  intro 
duced  again?  After  all  the  sacrifices  and  victories 
of  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  which  king,  aristoc 
racy,  and  class  legislation  had  been  cast  aside, 
were  we  to  voluntarily  fasten  upon  our  necks  the 
same  yoke  in  another  form?  Was  humanity  never 
to  learn  its  lesson?  Was  the  past  never  to  be  re 
spected  as  a  teacher? 

The  conception  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  that  the 
331 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

world  was  making  one  more  great  effort  to  evolve 
a  higher,  better  system  of  government  than  Europe 
had  ever  known;  and  it  galled  him  to  see  that 
statesmen  like  Hamilton  were  merely  attempting 
to  secure  such  legislation,  establish  such  institu 
tions,  as  would  give  us  as  good  a  system  as  the 
abominably  unjust  system  of  Great  Britain. 

Bight  or  wrong,  this  was  Jefferson's  attitude; 
and  to  understand  him,  it  is  necessary  to  place  one 
self  at  that  point  of  view. 

He  detested  Hamilton,  not  as  a  personal  enemy, 
but  as  the  most  dangerous  champion  of  the  anti- 
republican,  anti-democratic  spirit.  He  hated,  not 
the  man,  but  the  system. 

Washington  had  endeavored  to  govern  with  a 
non-partizan  Cabinet.  The  attempt  was  a  failure. 
Parties  sprang  up  at  the  very  council-board,  the 
two  great  secretaries  striking  at  each  other  like 
fighting-cocks. 

Hamilton's  party  established  a  newspaper  or 
gan,  Fenno's  Gazette. 

Jefferson's  party  founded  Preneau's  Gazette. 

The  rival  papers  hammered  each  other  and  the 
leaders  on  each  side  in  the  manner  since  grown  so 
familiar.  Hamilton  was  not  spared,  Jefferson  was 
assaulted,  Washington  himself  roundly  abused. 
Freneau  was  a  clerk  in  the  State  Department,  with 
a  salary  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  year. 
The  President  seemed  to  think  that  Jefferson  should 

332 


THE   GENET   EPISODE 

dismiss  the  troublesome  editor,  but  the  Secretary 
declined  to  do  so.  Those  who  claim  that  Jefferson 
was  deficient  in  courage  have  many  obstacles  to 
overcome,  and  this  braving  of  the  wrath  of  Wash 
ington  is  one  of  them. 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  had  no  fondness  for  the 
heated  atmosphere  of  personal  dispute  and  wran 
gles;  by  nature  he  preferred  the  calm  of  libraries 
and  the  upper  regions  of  philosophic  thought. 
Speeches  he  would  not  make,  newspaper  contro 
versies  he  would  not  wage.  Plans  of  campaing  he 
would  furnish  to  lieutenants,  marching  orders  to 
battalions,  but  for  the  actual  scene  of  strife,  the 
hurly-burly  of  knock  down  and  drag  out,  he  was 
unfitted.  He  feared  no  one,  shrank  from  no  posi 
tion,  compromised  no  principle  to  save  himself,  de 
serted  no  friend  because  the  world  was  against 
him;  but  yet  he  had  that  high  sense  of  personal  dig 
nity  which  held  him  aloof  from  any  line  of  action 
inconsistent  with  his  ideal  of  the  statesman.  A 
Wellington  might  not  be  afraid  to  take  off  his  coat 
to  fight  the  regimental  bully;  but  no  one  would  ex 
pect  to  see  a  Wellington  do  a  thing  of  that  kind. 

It  was  Wellington's  business  to  plan  the  cam 
paign  and  direct  the  combats  of  other  men.  Let 
bullies  fight  bullies. 

But  while  Mr.  Jefferson  took  no  hand  in  this 
newspaper  war,  Hamilton  did.  Holding  his  rival 
responsible  for  all  that  Freneau  had  written,  Ham- 

333 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

ilton  assailed  Jefferson  violently,  but  the  purpose 
failed.  Jefferson  paid  no  attention  to  him. 

President  Washington  was  grieved  and  scandal 
ized  at  this  state  of  things  in  his  non-partizan  Cab 
inet.  In  the  noblest  spirit  he  endeavored  to  com 
pose  the  unseemly  strife.  But  each  Secretary  was 
without  fault  in  his  own  eyes;  and  the  breach  was 
not  healed.  Hamilton  wrote  the  President  a  let 
ter  of  justification,  and  Jefferson  did  likewise — and 
Federalists  have  never  ceased  to  resent  the  fact 
that  of  the  twro  letters  Jefferson's  is  the  stronger. 

His  position  having  become  irksome  to  him,  Mr. 
Jefferson  offered  more  than  once  to  resign.  At  the 
urgent  request  of  the  President,  however,  he  held 
on  till  January  1,  1794,  when  he  retired,  carrying 
with  him  as  warm  a  letter  of  commendation  as 
Washington  could  write. 

In  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson,  Mr.  William 
Eleroy  Curtis  states  that  Jefferson  "  was  compelled 
to  resign  from  the  Cabinet."  This  surprising  state 
ment  is  not  only  contradicted  by  all  the  previous 
biographers  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  is  contradicted  by 
Washington  himself. 

In  his  letter  of  January  1,  1794,  he  says  to  Mr. 
Jefferson: 

"  I  yesterday  received  with  sincere  regret  your 
resignation  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 
Since  it  has  been  impossible  to  prevail  upon  you 
to  forego  any  longer  the  indulgence  of  your  de- 

334 


THE    GENET   EPISODE 

sire  for  private  life,  the  event,  however  anxious  I 
am  to  prevent  it,  must  be  submitted  to." 

He  then  goes  on  to  pay  a  high  tribute  to  his 
retiring  Secretary. 

If  Mr.  Curtis  had  investigated  his  subject  he 
would  have  learned  that  General  Washington 
sought  to  win  Jefferson  back  to  service  of  his  ad 
ministration  by  offering  a  special  mission  to  Spain. 
Mr.  Jefferson  declined  in  a  letter  which  bears  date 
September  7,  1794. 

The  statements  made  by  Mr.  Curtis  that  Wash 
ington  wished  Jefferson  out  of  the  Cabinet,  that 
Jefferson  promised  several  times  to  get  out,  and 
that  he  was  at  last  forced  out,  are  untrue. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  popularity  and  reputation  were 
greatly  increased  by  his  record  as  Secretary  of 
State.  He  had  diligently  applied  himself  to  the 
routine  work  of  his  department,  improving  the 
postal  service;  arranging  treaties  with  Indian 
tribes;  laying  off  the  new  Federal  city  and  planning 
its  public  buildings;  making  exhaustive  studies  and 
reports  on  uniformity  of  coinage,  weights,  and 
measures;  and  all  such  other  matters  as  then  fell 
within  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State.  It  was 
upon  his  recommendation  that  the  Government  de 
cided  to  coin  its  own  money,  and  the  mint  at  Phila 
delphia  was  established.  His  correspondence  with 
Genet,  and  with  the  English  minister,  Mr.  Ham 
mond,  was  highly  approved,  and  the  opposition 

335 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

which  he  had  made  to  Hamilton's  policies  gave  him 
his  first  prominence  as  the  leader  of  a  distinct  polit 
ical  party.  The  sentiment  which  he  represented,  the 
principles  of  which  he  made  himself  the  exponent 
and  champion,  were  as  yet  unorganized;  but  they 
were  powerful,  and  Jefferson  was  their  prophet.  It 
began  to  appear  then,  as  it  more  clearly  appears 
now,  that,  as  Hamilton  stood  for  a  class  and  for  a 
government  of  special  privilege,  Jefferson  stood  for 
the  mass  of  the  people  and  a  government  of  equal 
rights  to  all. 

Yet,  so  great  was  his  tact,  his  smoothness  of 
manner  and  method,  that  he  probably  counted  as 
many  personal  friends  among  Hamilton's  follow 
ers  as  Hamilton  himself  could  claim.  Although  he 
did  not  treat  his  friends  as  if  they  might  one  day 
become  enemies — thus  hastening  the  coming  of 
that  day — he  did  behave  toward  his  enemies  very 
much  as  if  they  might  at  some  future  time  see  their 
error  and  become  friends — as  most  of  them  actu 
ally  did.  In  fact,  Jefferson  united  in  himself  two 
distinct  qualities:  he  was  a  consummate  man  of  the 
world  in  his  social  relations  with  others,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  he  fought  for  his  creed  with  the  stub 
bornness  of  a  fanatic. 

He  had  all  the  reforming  zeal  of  Luther,  with 
out  his  brutality;  and  all  the  scholarly  polish  of 
Erasmus,  without  his  timidity.  He  wras  not  con 
tent  to  merely  draw  the  curtains,  drink  tea  in  the 

336 


THE   GENET   EPISODE 

library,  and  slay  dragons  with  Ms  pen;  not  con 
tent  to  leave  his  brethren  out  in  the  storm,  while 
he  himself  lounged,  in  slippered  feet,  by  the  cheer 
ful  blaze. 

Prom  the  memorable  day  of  Patrick  Henry's 
speech  in  the  Burgesses,  when  Jefferson,  the  col 
lege  student,  had  stood  in  the  door  of  the  lobby 
listening,  he  had  been  in  the  very  front  rank  of  the 
fighters.  He  had  written  the  first  resolutions  which 
declared  for  independence,  at  a  time  when  Henry 
and  Washington  were  still  posing  as  subjects  of  the 
King.  His  Summary  View  was  the  bravest  paper 
in  all  the  literature  of  that  early  day,  and  the 
ablest.  It  put  his  neck  in  the  halter,  in  the  event 
rebellion  did  not  succeed. 

Time  and  again  he  had  come  forward  in  public 
bodies  with  papers  that  were  rejected  for  the  rea 
son  that  they  were  too  bold.  Never  had  a  line  of 
his  been  put  aside  because  it  was  too  timid.  Jeffer 
son's  timidity  is  biographical  fruit  solely — planted 
by  the  imaginative,  cultivated  by  the  imitative,  and 
swallowed  by  the  simple. 

The  ink  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
hardly  dry  when  this  same  timid  Jefferson  hurried 
to  Virginia,  challenged  the  proud,  strong  aristoc 
racy  of  the  Old  Dominion  to  the  field,  and  unhorsed 
it  in  fair  fight.  Then  he  accomplished  what  French 
Revolutionists  found  it  so  hard  to  do,  and  what 
Mr.  Gladstone  found  it  so  hard  to  do  in  Ireland,  and 
23  337 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

what  no  man  has  been  able  to  do  in  England  to  this 
day — he  disestablished  the  state  Church. 

Not  only  that!  He  told  the  whites  they  ought 
to  free  the  blacks;  and  told  the  rich  they  ought  to 
tax  themselves  to  educate  the  poor!  More  than 
that,  even — he  told  old  William  and  Mary  College 
that  she  must  turn  out  two  ridiculous  doctors  of 
divinity  and  otherwise  modernize  her  antiquated 
institution. 

Yet  so  scholarly  a  writer  as  Henry  Cabot  Lodge 
makes  timidity  a  salient  feature  of  Jefferson's 
character;  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  continually  repeats 
that  he  was  "  iceak  and  vacillating! " 


The  last  patent  Mr.  Jefferson  issued  while  he 
was  Secretary  of  State  was  to  Eli  Whitney  for  the 
cotton-gin. 

Mr.  Whitney  was  doubtless  an  original  inventor 
and  was  entitled  to  the  patent  he  got  and  the  for 
tune  he  made;  but  just  as  certainly  as  there  were 
steamboats  before  Fulton's  there  was  a  cotton-gin 
before  Whitney's!  Within  a  few  miles  of  where 
the  present  writer  lives,  an  inventive,  enterprising 
genius,  Jesse  Bull,  who  moved  into  Georgia  from 
Maryland,  operated  a  primitive  cotton-gin  with  a 
packing-box  run  by  an  iron  screw. 

The  descendants  of  Jesse  Bull  were  schoolmates 
of  the  author,  and  he  has  seen  ancient  papers  pre- 
338 


THE   GENET   EPISODE 

served  in  the  family,  and  has  heard  the  talk  of  old 
citizens  who  were  conversant  with  neighborhood 
traditions.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  cotton-gin, 
like  the  steamboat,  like  the  sewing-machine,  and 
like  the  breech-loading  gun,  had  entered  into  the 
heads  of  others  than  the  final  patentee.  Colonel 
Tarleton  had  a  breech-loading  gun  in  our  Revolu 
tionary  War,  and  there  is  one  in  the  Tower  of  Lon- 
Aon  which  must  be  hundreds  of  years  old.  That 
the  invention  was  offered  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
by  a  Prussian  mechanic  is  well  known.  Therefore, 
in  the  case  of  the  cotton-gin,  there  is  nothing  in 
credible  in  the  story  that  Jesse  Bull  was  using  both 
gin  and  press  when  Whitney  was  working  out  his 
idea  of  the  gin. 

The  Patent  Office  had  just  been  established,  and 
Bull  may  have  known  nothing  of  it  till  too  late. 
Whitney  was  from  the  North,  was  intimate  with 
General  Nathaniel  Greene,  and  through  his  intro 
duction  could  reach  the  Patent  Office  with  every 
thing  in  his  favor.  He  got  the  patent,  and  then 
used  the  Federal  courts  to  stop  Jesse  Bull.  The 
cases  in  the  Federal  courts  never  came  to  a  trial, 
for  reasons  which  can  not  now  be  known. 


339 


CHAPTER    XXXVI 

AT   MONTICELLO  AGAIN 

DURING  his  term  in  the  Cabinet,  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  been  to  Monticello  for  an  occasional  vacation, 
but  not  long  enough  to  get  his  affairs  in  order. 

He  now  found  them  in  bad  shape.  The  over 
seer,  it  appears,  had  let  everything  go  to  waste. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  negro  slaves 
and  three  sheep.  The  fences  and  buildings  were 
dilapidated,  the  mountain-slope  fields  were  washed 
into  gullies  and  "  galls."  The  yield  of  wheat  seems 
to  have  got  down  to  where  it  was  a  case  of  "  nip 
and  tuck  "  to  get  the  seed  back.  The  one  crop  on 
the  place  which  never  failed  was — debts. 

When  Mr.  Jefferson  set  out  for  France  he  had 
left  many  unpaid  accounts  behind  him,  not  inclu 
ding  the  British  encumbrance  on  the  lands.  These 
various  obligations  soon  made  an  interest  charge 
upon  his  resources  of  about  two  thousand  dollars 
per  year. 

The  mansion  at  Monticello  had  never  been  com 
pleted.  He  was  still  at  work  on  it.  Europe  had 
given  him  some  new  ideas,  and  into  his  model  home 
some  of  these  new  ideas  must  go.  Changes  had  to 

340 


AT   MONTICELLO  AGAIN 

be  made,  additions  planned,  perfections  worked  out 
— regardless  of  cost.  The  dome  had  not  been  put 
on;  some  of  the  walls  were  not  even  ready  for  the 
roof.  At  such  tasks  slaves  were  kept  employed; 
and  had  the  overseers  been  asked  what  was  the 
matter  with  Mr.  Jefferson's  affairs,  they  might  have 
replied  that  a  good  deal  of  his  financial  un- 
healthiness  was  due  to  the  everlasting  labor  and 
expense  connected  with  the  building  of  the  model 
house. 

When  Mr.  Curtis  states  that  the  entire  cost  of 
this  building  was  less  than  eight  thousand  dollars, 
he  comes  almost  as  near  the  facts  as  when  he  says 
that  Washington  compelled  Jefferson's  resignation 
from  the  Cabinet. 

Martha  Jefferson  had  married  Thomas  Mann 
Randolph  (February  23,  1790),  and  she  now  had  two 
children.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  so  devoted  to  his 
daughter  and  her  children  that  Monticello  contin 
ued  to  be  her  home. 

Maria  is  described  as  being  "  a  vision  of  beauty." 
She  was  soon  to  become  the  wife  of  John  Eppes. 
Both  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  sons-in-law  were  in  Con 
gress  while  he  was  President. 

A  democrat  to  the  core,  in  principle  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  was  a  grand  seigneur  in  his  manner  of  life.  The 
flock  of  sheep  might  dwindle  to  three,  but  the  num 
ber  of  saddle-horses  was  eight.  Thirty-seven  bush 
els  of  wheat  was  the  crop  for  1794,  and  the  servants 

341 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

who  dawdled  about  the  mansion  probably  exceeded 
that  number.  On  his  home  farm  of  two  thousand 
acres  it  was  necessary  to  buy  five  more  horses  be 
fore  he  could  get  his  fourth  plow  going,  there  being 
eight  horses  to  the  plow. 

At  this  time,  1794,  it  appears  from  his  land-roll 
that  his  estate  had  shrunk  to  10,647  acres,  com 
paratively  little  of  which  was  in  cultivation.  It 
does  not  seem  that  there  was  any  net  income  at  all 
now  from  the  farms.  There  was  a  thirty  thousand 
dollar  grist-mill  on  the  Rivanna,  which  did  not  pay; 
there  was  the  weaving  of  cloth,  the  forging  of  nails, 
and  the  other  farm  industries  common  to  large 
plantations  of  that  day,  but  Monticello  was  never 
a  farm  in  the  sense  that  Mount  Vernon  was.  Wash 
ington  was  a  practical  farmer,  and  made  the  busi 
ness  yield  a  profit;  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  a  prac 
tical  farmer,  and  did  not  make  his  land  pay.  At 
least,  that  is  the  opinion  the  present  writer  has 
reached  after  considerable  investigation. 

Back  at  Monticello,  Mr.  Jefferson  put  his  whole 
heart  into  the  work  of  renovation.  Trim  lines  of 
fruit-trees,  to  run  where  zigzag  fences  had  rotted, 
were  set — an  idea  brought  from  France.  Artistic 
touches  on  house  and  grounds,  on  lawn,  terrace, 
and  garden,  were  expensively  applied — suggestions 
brought  from  Italy  or  England.  New  ways  of 
rotating  crops,  resting  land,  restoring  land,  in 
creasing  the  output,  were  tried — hints  picked  up 

342 


ISAAC  SHELBY. 


AT   MONTICELLO   AGAIN 

in  conversations  with  learned  academical  farm 
ers  or  from  books  which  were  convincing  to  the 
mind. 

It  was  a  delight  to  Mr.  Jefferson  to  apply  his  me 
chanical  and  mathematical  gifts  to  practical  pur 
poses.  He  doted  on  experiment.  He  burned  to 
make  improvements.  He  reached  out  to  grasp  new 
fields  in  thought  and  achievement.  He  realized  the 
vast  possibilities  of  chemistry  when  a  savant  like 
Buffon  was  classing  the  science  with  cookery;  he 
saw  a  flying-machine  worked  by  a  screw  in  Paris, 
and  expressed  the  belief  that  the  screw-propeller  in 
water  would  be  even  more  effective.  He  reduced  to 
writing  a  mathematical  formula  for  making  an  im 
proved  mold-board  for  a  turn-plow,  and  took  a 
gold  prize  on  it  in  France. 

He  made  for  his  own  use  a  folding  chair,  a  copy- 
press,  an  extension  top  to  his  carriage,  a  one-horse 
"  sulky,"  and  numerous  other  inventions,  any  one 
of  which  would  have  made  some  Yankee's  fortune. 
He  introduced  the  first  thrashing-machine  ever 
brought  to  this  country,  and  he  was  one  of  the  first 
to  import  Merino  sheep.  He  was  a  man  whose 
originality  sometimes  crossed  the  line  of  the  lu 
dicrous.  The  interior  of  his  house  gives  evi 
dences  of  this.  For  instance,  there  was  an  opening 
in  the  wall  between  his  wife's  bedroom  and  his  own, 
the  bed  occupying  the  open  space.  Thus  he  could 
enter  the  bed  at  night  from  his  room,  and  she  from 

343 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

hers.    In  like  manner  they  could  separate  of  morn 
ings.    A  good  arrangement,  but  peculiar. 

It  was  just  such  oddities  as  these  which  caused 
some  matter-of-fact  people  to  make  fun  of  the  sage 
of  Monticello.  Toleration  is  yet  a  myth,  and  the 
unwritten  law  is  that  you  must  conform. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  not  a  conformer,  had  no  such 
reverence  for  antiquity  as  to  resent  the  appearance 
of  the  new  moon  and  to  resist  a  change  in  the 
weather;  consequently  he  often  did  things  which 
shocked  the  conservatives. 

Days  of  joy  these  were  to  this  lover  of  Nature  in 
all  her  moods,  in  all  her  myriad  displays  of  sub 
limity  or  beauty.  To  whom  did  a  flower  speak  in  a 
language  more  touching  than  to  this  great  states 
man?  He  would  bend  over  violet  or  lily,  over  tulip 
or  rose,  with  a  rapt  enjoyment  which  never  grew 
old,  never  grew  cold.  With  every  return  of  the 
spring  his  love  was  that  of  youth  for  the  flowers. 

And  the  birds — the  birds!  Did  the  musicians  of 
the  woods  ever  have  a  better  friend?  He  loved 
their  presence,  loved  their  beauty,  loved  their  song, 
loved  their  love  of  life. 

Bead  his  letters  to  the  children;  note  his  yearn 
ing  to  plant  in  their  hearts  the  love  of  birds  and 
flowers.  See  how  earnestly  he  instils  into  young 
minds  the  true  refinement  to  which  every  charm 
of  nature  is  a  poem  without  rhyme,  a  song  with 
out  words. 

344 


AT   MONTICELLO   AGAIN 

As  a  young  lawyer,  he  sketched  out  his  plans  for 
the  home  ideal,  and  the  care  with  which  he  ex 
pected  to  attract  the  birds  to  come  and  live  with 
him  was  written  down  with  sober  earnestness. 

Protect  the  birds!  When  President  of  the 
United  States  he  wrote  his  daughter:  "I  sincerely 
congratulate  you  on  the  arrival  of  the  mocking 
bird.  Learn  the  children  to  venerate  it  as  a  su 
perior  being  in  the  form  of  a  bird,  or  as  a  being 
which  will  haunt  them  if  any  harm  is  done  to  itself 
or  its  eggs." 

In  spite  of  debts  and  the  devastations  of  over 
seers,  therefore,  Mr.  Jefferson  spent  happily  the 
year  1794  at  Monticello,  taking  only  a  casual  inter 
est  in  passing  events.  His  time  had  not  come  to 
change  the  policies  of  the  Government. 

He  could  and  would  write  letters  to  certain 
prominent  friends  here  and  there,  keeping  in 
touch  with  public  affairs,  at  the  same  time  that 
he  was  putting  out  peach-trees  and  watching 
the  progress  of  lucerne  and  peas.  When  the 
Whisky  Rebellion  broke  out  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
disappeared  at  the  advance  of  the  troops,  Mr. 
Jefferson's  sympathies  were  rather  with  the  mal 
contents  than  with  the  law,  for  the  excise  he 
thought  was  infernal.  When  John  Jay  went  to 
England,  negotiated  a  treaty  which  left  Great  Brit 
ain  free  to  continue  the  seizure  of  our  ships  and  our 
sailors,  while  it  forbade  us  to  export  cotton  and  a 

345 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

good  many  other  things,  he  saw  as  clearly  as  any 
one  how  the  honor  of  the  nation  had  been  sacrificed 
to  New  England  commerce;  but  when  Washington 
gave  the  treaty  his  sanction,  he,  like  thousands  of 
others,  had  to  swallow  his  indignation,  and  hope 
for  better  things. 

He  witnessed  the  complete  triumph  of  the  Brit 
ish  faction  in  Washington's  Cabinet,  and  deplored 
it.  He  saw  Edmund  Randolph — the  young  Virgin 
ian  who  had  left  everything,  broken  every  tie,  to 
join  Washington  and  serve  his  country — saw  him 
cast  out  on  no  other  proof  than  a  doubtful  sentence 
found  in  the  captured  despatches  of  the  French 
minister. 

At  this  time  General  Washington,  as  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  thought,  was  in  his  decline.  Age  had  impaired 
his  memory  and  the  firmness  of  his  mind.  He  was 
surrounded  by  inferior  men,  who  were  under  Ham 
ilton's  sway,  and  the  President  was  controlled  by 
them  to  a  greater  extent  than  he  realized.  So 
thought  Mr.  Jefferson.  A  letter  of  his  to  Mazzei, 
the  Italian  who  had  been  his  neighbor,  alluded  to 
the  English  faction  which  had  secured  control,  and 
they  were  called  "  apostates  .  .  .  men  who  were 
Samsons  in  the  field  and  Solomons  in  the  council, 
but  who  have  had  their  heads  shorn  by  the  harlot, 
England." 

The  British  faction,  every  ready  to  put  Wash 
ington  between  themselves  and  the  enemy,  thrust 

346 


AT   MONTICELLO   AGAIN 

him  forward  once  more,  claiming  that  Jefferson's 
reference  was  to  him. 

This  Mr.  Jefferson  denied,  contending  that  his 
reference  was  to  Hamilton,  Jay,  and  others  of  the 
Federalist  party. 

The  Federalist  papers  attacked  Mr.  Jefferson  on 
account  of  this  letter,  just  as  they  attacked  him  on 
other  points,  and  he  paid  no  more  attention  to  this 
attack  than  he  did  to  the  others.  When  Mr.  Curtis 
says  that  "  never  before  had  he  avoided  a  newspa 
per  controversy,"  his  statement  amounts  to  noth 
ing  more  than  an  addition  to  the  errors  already 
contained  in  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson.  Never 
was  Mr.  Jefferson  a  newspaper  controversialist  till 
he  fell  into  the  clutches  of  William  Eleroy  Curtis. 
This  author  further  states  that  from  the  time  of 
the  Mazzei  letter  Washington  and  Jefferson 
"  ceased  all  correspondence  and  intercourse." 

The  slightest  comparison  of  dates  will  convince 
even  Mr.  Curtis  that  he  has  erred.  The  Mazzei  let 
ter  caused  no  rupture  between  Washington  and 
Jefferson  at  the  time. 

Subsequent  to  that,  friendly  letters  passed,  cor 
dial  personal  relations  continued  to  exist,  and 
Washington  entertained  Jefferson  at  his  table. 
They  parted  affectionately  after  John  Adams's  in 
auguration. 

It  was  a  letter  which  John  Nicholas  wrote 
Washington,  long  after  the  Mazzei  letter,  which 

347 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

caused  Washington  to  express  the  doubt  as  to  Jef 
ferson's  sincerity.  The  contents  of  the  Nicholas 
letter  are  not  known. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  always 
careful  to  draw  a  distinction  between  Washington 
and  the  Hamilton-Wolcott-Pickering  clique,  which 
too  often  influenced  him.  In  none  of  his  most  pri 
vate  letters  will  expressions  disrespectful  to  the 
Father  of  his  Country  be  found. 

And  when  Mount  Vernon  had  lost  its  master, 
when  the  land  was  in  mourning,  the  English  Chan 
nel  fleet  lowering  its  flags,  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
paying  public  tribute  to  the  simple  private  citizen 
who  slept  on  the  Potomac,  what  was  the  attitude 
of  the  rivals,  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Alexander 
Hamilton? 

The  political  foe,  Jefferson,  penned  the  most 
discriminating  and  permanently  valuable  tribute 
that  has  ever  been  paid  to  Washington's  character; 
while  Hamilton,  the  political  friend  of  the  dead 
man,  wrote  that  cold  and  selfish  letter  in  which 
he  told  the  heart-broken  widow  how  service 
able  Washington  had  been  to  him!  Hamilton  had 
lost  an  aegis  necessary  to  his  protection  and  to 
his  schemes — and  that  was  the  thought  which  was 
uppermost  in  the  Hamilton  mind  as  the  Masons 
clapped  their  hands  over  and  beside  the  bier,  and 
the  war-horse,  riderless  forever,  followed  his  master 
to  his  tomb. 

348 


AT    MONTICELLO    AGAIN 

Even  while  Death  had  the  great  soldier  by  the 
throat,  choking  his  life  out  with  frightful  cruelty, 
the  precious  old  Federalist  clique  was  planning  to 
run  Washington  again  for  the  presidency  in  order 
that  they  might  remain  in  the  high  places  from 
which  the  people  were  about  to  cast  them! 


349 


CHAPTER    XXXVII 

ADAMS     AS     PRESIDENT 

So  rapid  had  been  the  growth  of  opposition  to 
the  policies  of  Washington's  administration  that 
it  was  only  by  what  Hamilton  called  "  a  kind  of 
miracle  "  that  he  did  not  receive  his  rebuke  at  the 
next  election.  Had  Thomas  Jefferson  been  our  sec 
ond  President,  owing  his  success,  as  he  would  have 
done,  to  his  disapproval  of  the  Federalist  measures, 
history  would  have  been  compelled  to  say  that 
Washington  retired  from  office  under  a  vote  of  cen 
sure. 

Aided  by  all  the  advantages  of  patronage,  posi 
tion,  and  Washington's  overshadowing  influence, 
John  Adams  defeated  Thomas  Jefferson  by  only 
three  votes,  and  these  were  due  to  some  accidental 
circumstances. 

A  more  pathetic  figure  than  Adams  during  the 
four  years  of  his  presidency  has  seldom  been  seen 
in  that  high  office. 

An  approved  patriot,  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
experience,  he  entered  upon  his  duties  heavily 
handicapped  by  his  surroundings  and  by  the  in 
firmities  of  his  own  character.  Mr.  Adams  was 

350 


ADAMS   AS   PRESIDENT 

learned,  honest,  and  capable,  but  his  vanity,  jeal 
ousy,  and  irritability  amounted  almost  to  mono 
mania.  His  situation  was  even  worse  than  his 
temper,  for  the  election  had  shown  that  he  was 
practically  the  President  of  a  minority.  To  make 
his  lot  peculiarly  wretched,  this  minority  was  fac 
tious.  It  worshiped  three  gods,  the  least  of  whom 
was  Adams.  Washington  first,  Hamilton  second, 
Adams  third  and  last,  was  the  order  in  which  Fed 
eralism  bowed  to  its  divinities. 

Besides  all  this,  Adams  inherited  the  complica 
tions  Washington  had  made,  without  succeeding  to 
Washington's  capacity  to  deal  with  them. 

The  woes  of  our  second  President  began  with 
his  inauguration.  On  that  day,  when  all  right- 
minded  people  should  have  worshiped  the  rising 
sun,  Adams,  they  had  perversely  prostrated  them 
selves  before  Washington,  the  setting  sun.  Every 
body  had  eyes  and  acclamations  for  Washington; 
few,  indeed,  paid  proper  attention  to  Adams.  The 
ingoing  President  would  have  been  more  than  hu 
man  had  he  not  been  hurt;  and  being  just  human, 
he  suffered. 

This,  however,  was  trivial  and  temporary; 
Washington  would  go  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  Phila 
delphia  would  then  belong  to  President  Adams. 
Such  would  have  been  the  case  had  not  Adams  him 
self  ordered  otherwise.  Making  the  mistake  which 
doomed  him,  he  took  Washington's  Cabinet  just  as 

351 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

he  found  it,  thus  saddling  himself  with  councilors 
who  had  grown  accustomed  to  the  dictation  of 
Hamilton. 

Fastened  in  this  way  to  policies  and  to  advisers 
which  he  could  not  control,  the  President  stumbled 
along  from  one  defeat  and  humiliation  to  another, 
until  he  had  turned  his  political  friends  into  ene 
mies,  without  having  changed  enemies  into  friends. 
For  the  first  of  his  troubles  Mr.  Adams  was  not  re 
sponsible. 

President  Washington  had  sent  James  Monroe 
on  a  mission  to  France,  and  had  recalled  him  in 
disgrace. 

Monroe  was  not  the  ablest  of  Virginians,  but 
George  Washington  himself  was  not  a  truer,  clean 
er  man.  As  a  mere  schoolboy  James  Monroe  had 
run  off  to  the  war,  had  fought  gallantly,  had  led  the 
attack  on  the  British  in  the  streets  of  Trenton,  and 
had  got  a  bullet  in  his  shoulder  which  he  carried 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  Monroe  had  served  with 
the  French,  appreciated  the  help  the  French  gave 
us  at  that  crisis,  and  carried  to  France  a  lively  rec 
ollection  of  the  days  when  he  and  the  French  offi 
cers  had  gone  into  battle  side  by  side  to  face  Brit 
ish  guns. 

Gouverneur  Morris  had  been  our  minister  to 
France  succeeding  Jefferson,  and  Morris  had  given 
the  republicans  such  offense  that  they  insisted 
upon  his  recall. 

352 


ADAMS   AS   PRESIDENT 

Washington  sent  Monroe,  after  having  tendered 
the  place  to  others,  who  declined. 

Monroe  was  young,  and  had  not  yet  lost  ca 
pacity  for  enthusiasm.  Caught  up  in  the  whirl 
wind  of  democratic  passion  in  Paris,  the  young 
Virginian's  conduct  was  very  different  from  that  of 
the  aristocrat,  Gouverneur  Morris. 

The  National  Convention  of  France  (which  had 
just  overthrown  Robespierre  and  put  an  end  to 
the  Reign  of  Terror)  gave  Monroe  a  public  recep 
tion.  Overlooking  Genet's  treatment,  making  no 
references  to  the  broken  alliance  of  1778,  nor  to 
our  refusal  to  pay  France  some  of  the  debt  we  owed 
her  when  her  need  was  so  great,  the  French  Na 
tional  Convention  greeted  James  Monroe  with  loud 
applause,  and  the  President  gave  him  the  brotherly 
embrace. 

The  Convention  decreed  that  the  flags  of  the 
United  States  and  of  France  should  be  intertwined; 
and,  thus  joined  together,  should  be  displayed  in 
the  hall  of  the  Convention  as  a  sign  to  all  the  world 
of  the  union  and  the  eternal  friendship  of  the  two 
people — of  the  sister  republics! 

Join  the  flags  together;  hang  them  in  the  hall 
where  the  universe  can  see;  France  is  not  ashamed 
nor  afraid  to  let  every  monarchy  in  Europe  know 
how  her  people  love  Americans  and  their  re 
public  ! 

Thus  the  voice  of  France!  And  this  was  at  a 
24  353 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

time  when  every  king  in  the  civilized  world  was 
banded  against  her  and  marching  upon  her. 

What  was  the  response  of  our  Government? 
Edmund  Kandolph,  acting  under  the  orders  of 
Washington  and  his  Cabinet,  wrote  to  Monroe  a 
stinging  letter  of  rebuke.  His  course  had  been  too 
friendly.  It  would  embarrass  us  with  England. 
Monroe  should  have  expressed  his  good-will  to  the 
French  Republic  privately,  "  because  the  dictates 
of  sincerity  do  not  demand  that  we  should  render 
notorious  all  our  feelings  in  favor  of  that  nation." 
In  other  words,  our  friendship  must  be  of  the  cau 
tious  sort  which  shrinks  from  open  avowal. 

Thomas  Paine  had  aided  the  French  Revolution 
as  he  had  aided  ours.  He  had  risked  his  head  first 
for  the  republicans  when  the  King  was  still  strong, 
and  then  for  mercy  when  democracy  was  victorious 
and  the  King's  life  demanded.  He  had  stood 
against  all  odds  opposing  the  King's  execution. 
Robespierre's  faction  marked  him  for  the  guillotine. 
The  July  revolt  against  Robespierre  saved  him. 
But  he  still  lay  in  jail,  and  his  suffering  was 
great. 

Gouverneur  Morris  had  refused  to  lift  a  finger 
in  his  behalf.  In  fact,  Morris  seemed  quite  willing 
to  lift  a  couple  of  fingers  on  the  other  side. 

Neither  would  Washington  intercede. 

Monroe  had  not  forgotten,  nor  was  he  ashamed. 
He  interposed  in  behalf  of  Paine,  got  him  out  of 

354 


ADAMS   AS   PRESIDENT 

jail,  took  him  to  his  own  house,  and  there  gave  him 
shelter  and  protection. 

Impartial  history  reviewing  this  transaction 
will  not  make  comparisons  injurious  to  Monroe! 

Afterward  came  Jay's  mission  to  England,  his 
violation  of  the  plain  terms  of  his  instructions,  his 
treaty,  which  threw  France  over  and  which  sac 
rificed  principle  and  honor  in  the  interest  of  New 
England  trade.  Of  course,  the  indignation  of 
France  was  extreme.  From  her  point  of  view, 
America  had  used  her  against  Great  Britain,  and 
was  now  making  a  sacrifice  of  her  to  Great  Britain. 

From  the  French  point  of  view,  was  not  the  feel 
ing  of  resentment  natural? 

The  British  faction  in  Washington's  Cabinet 
was  no  longer  willing  that  James  Monroe  should  be 
minister  to  France.  His  recall  was  sent,  and  C.  C. 
Pinckney  was  named  to  succeed  him. 

Now,  the  ill  luck  of  John  Adams  was  that  he  fell 
heir  to  this  quarrel. 

The  French  Government,  looking  upon  Monroe's 
recall  as  an  unfriendly  act,  refused  to  receive 
Pinckney;  but  their  refusal  came  too  late  to  em 
barrass  Washington.  It  caught  Adams  at  the 
threshold  of  his  administration. 

During  Washington's  term  Great  Britain  had 
heaped  insults  upon  us;  had  ma^e  a  bloody  record 
along  our  northwestern  frontier;  had  seized  our 
merchantmen;  had  impressed  our  sailors.  When 

355 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

the  French  minister,  Fauchet,  had  returned  to 
France,  preparations  for  his  capture  had  been 
made  by  the  English  in  our  own  harbors.  Even 
after  the  Jay  treaty,  British  ships  continued  their 
depredations,  seizing  our  vessels  and  our  men. 
Washington  had  done  nothing;  Federalism  was 
helpless  to  prevent  or  revenge  the  outrages. 

Besides,  Hamilton  was  so  bent  upon  that  British 
alliance  of  his  that  nothing  permanently  angered 
him. 

Adams  succeeded  to  all  this — could  not  pos 
sibly  have  escaped  it,  for  it  was  upon  him  at  the 
very  moment  he  stepped  into  the  presidency. 
Neither  could  he  have  escaped  the  French  snarl. 
It  was  there  already.  Hamilton  and  Washington 
had  made  it;  Adams  was  left  to  stagger  under  it. 

Badgered  by  France,  baited  by  Jefferson's  re 
publicans,  undermined  by  his  own  Cabinet,  John 
Adams  found  the  presidency  to  be  what  Jefferson 
had  said  it  was,  "  a  splendid  misery  "•  —the  misery 
being  much  more  apparent  than  the  splendor. 

The  whole  nation  rallied  to  the  British  faction 
when  Talleyrand  made  the  celebrated  "  X.  Y.  Z." 
attempt  to  extort  tribute  from  the  grand  embassy 
which  Adams  had  sent  to  negotiate  for  peace;  and 
there  was  wild  talk  of  a  French  invasion.  Congress 
voted  supplies,  Washington  was  placed  in  com 
mand  of  the  army  of  defense,  and  preparations 
made  on  an  extensive  scale  for  war. 

356 


ADAMS   AS   PRESIDENT 

Here,  again,  there  were  mortifications  for 
Adams. 

General  Washington  named  Hamilton  to  rank 
next  to  himself  in  the  new  army;  and,  owing  to 
Washington's  age,  this  meant  that  Hamilton  would 
be  acting  commander-in-chief.  General  Knox  had 
ranked  Hamilton  in  the  old  army,  and  he  now 
claimed  precedence.  Adams  sided  with  Knox.  But 
Hamilton  held  the  Cabinet  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand;  and  the  Cabinet  threw  its  full  weight  for 
Hamilton.  Washington  insisted  that  Hamilton 
must  rank  next  to  himself,  and  Adams  had  to  give 
way. 

Another  pill  was  yet  more  bitter.  Washington 
had  given  an  appointment  in  the  new  army  to 
Smith,  the  son-in-law  of  the  President;  and  Picker 
ing,  a  member  of  Adams's  Cabinet,  opposed  Smith's 
confirmation.  Smith,  it  would  seem,  was  a  bank 
rupt;  and  Pickering  had  heard  that  there  were 
things  which  had  been  said  against  Smith's  charac 
ter.  Thus  the  President's  Cabinet  councilor  pre 
vailed  upon  the  Senate  to  reject  the  President's 
son-in-law,  regardless  of  the  Washington  appoint 
ment. 

It  was  certainly  a  very  peculiar  state  of  affairs, 
and  Mr.  Adams  must  have  been  most  unhappy. 

Just  before  entering  the  office  he  had  written  to 
the  partner  of  his  bosom,  the  faithful  Abigail,  in 
this  strain:  "  Although  the  moment  is  dangerous,  I 

357 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

am  not  scared.  Fear  takes  no  hold  on  me;  and 
makes  no  approaches  to  me." 

It  was  fortunate  for  Mr.  Adams  that  fear 
avoided  him  so  warily,  for  his  position  was  pre 
carious. 

The  British,  attentive  as  to  the  French  menace 
and  absent-minded  as  to  the  Jay  treaty,  ceased  to 
draw  the  line  of  their  aggressions  at  our  battle 
ships.  An  English  squadron  in  the  West  Indies 
defied  the  convoy  of  a  fleet  of  American  merchant 
men,  seized  some  of  the  vessels,  went  on  board  the 
convoying  sloop  of  war,  the  Baltimore,  and  took 
away  half  a  dozen  of  the  crew  of  our  battle-ship, 
after  having  compelled  fifty-five  of  our  sailors  to 
leave  the  Baltimore  and  go  on  board  the  British 
ships  for  inspection! 

Not  being  at  all  afraid,  and  having  concentrated 
his  anger  upon  France,  Mr.  Adams  did  not  excite 
himself  over  the  British  outrage.  Great  Britain 
was  not  even  hit  with  a  proclamation.1 

The  exposure  of  Talleyrand's  effort  to  extort  a 
bribe  from  America  embarrassed  that  infamous 
scoundrel  very  much  in  France;  for,  while  bribery 
there  was  beginning  to  be  the  fashion,  exposures 
were  in  disrepute.  The  principle  that  the  sin  con 
sists  mainly  in  being  "  caught  at  it,"  is  so  universal 

1  The  President  sent  a  circular  letter  to  our  naval  officers  instructing 
them  to  resist  further  attempts  of  the  same  kind.  Great  Britain  "  dis 
avowed  "  the  act,  kept  the  sailors,  continued  to  insult  us,  and  to  im 
press  our  seamen. 

358 


ADAMS   AS   PRESIDENT 

that  even  Talleyrand,  being  fairly  caught,  had  to 
take  his  punishment.  He  began  to  exert  all  his 
arts  to  draw  the  United  States  back  into  the  atti 
tude  of  seeking  a  treaty;  and  from  hints  he  went  to 
overtures,  and  from  overtures  advanced  to  explicit 
promises. 

An  eccentric  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  Dr.  Logan 
by  name — a  Quaker  by  descent — was  moved  at  the 
time  to  go  to  France  and  untangle  the  threads 
which  diplomacy  had  confused;  and  he  straight 
way  journeyed  to  Paris.  This,  of  course,  was  most 
irregular  and  reprehensible.  The  client  must  let 
his  lawyer  do  all  the  talking;  the  physician  re 
lies  upon  his  patient's  docility;  and  diplomacy 
could  never  do  business  if  plain  citizens  interfered. 

Unmindful  of  these  precepts  and  examples,  Dr. 
Logan  took  it  upon  himself  to  keep  France  and 
America  from  shedding  each  other's  blood.  A  word 
of  explanation  might  clear  up  what  was  evidently 
a  misunderstanding — and  so  win  a  glorious  victory 
for  peace. 

When  Dr.  Logan  appeared  upon  the  scene  in 
Paris,  he  had  better  credentials  than  President 
Adams  could  give  him.  He  was  able  to  show  a  let 
ter  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  vouching  for  him  as  a 
worthy,  respectable  citizen. 

The  name  of  Jefferson  was  something  to  conjure 
with  in  France;  and  Dr.  Logan  was  given  a  distin 
guished  reception.  That  he  was  wined  and  dined, 

359 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

hugged  and  kissed,  need  not  be  stated;  inference 
covers  that;  but,  what  is  more  important,  he  was 
taken  into  official  confidence,  and  assured  that 
France  wished  for  nothing  better  than  honorable 
peace  with  the  United  States. 

Very  sweet  things  must  the  conscience  and  self- 
esteem  of  Dr.  Logan  have  whispered  to  him  as  he 
hastened  back  to  America  to  tell  John  Adams  the 
result  of  his  mission. 

Adams's  satisfaction  was  greater  than  that  of 
Washington — much  more  so.  The  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  new  army  which  was  to  fight  France 
disapproved  Dr.  Logan's  unwarranted  conduct  to 
tally.  He  received  the  good  doctor  standing,  and 
with  that  icy  stare  which  froze  the  marrow  of  com 
mon  men.  His  words  to  the  Quaker  were  few,  and 
not  genial.  As  to  Hamilton  and  the  British  faction 
generally,  their  wrath  was  unbounded.  They  not 
only  denounced  the  volunteer  peacemaker,  but  had 
Congress  to  enact  a  law  making  it  a  crime  for  any 
American  thereafter  to  do  what  Dr.  Logan  had 
done.  Rather  than  have  peace  made  in  any  other 
way  than  the  regular  way,  let  war  come  and  dis 
cord  rule  forever! 

The  truth  is,  that  Hamilton  did  not  want  peace 
at  all.  He  had  fallen  in  with  the  schemes  of  the 
South  American  adventurer  Miranda,  and  was 
deep  into  an  intrigue  with  England  whose  purpose 
was  a  joint  enterprise  by  Great  Britain  and  the 

360 


ADAMS    AS    PRESIDENT 

United  States  against  French  and  Spanish  pos 
sessions  in  America.  Hamilton  concealed  this  de 
sign  from  Washington,  and  the  great  man  died  in 
ignorance  of  the  duplicity  of  his  friend.  But  Adams 
realized  after  a  while  that  the  French  quarrel  was 
mere  capital  to  Hamilton,  and  he  veered  round. 

Having  said  that  he  would  never  send  another 
mission  to  France,  he  sent  one.  Circumstances  had 
altered  the  case;  and  he  acted  like  a  brave,  true 
man  in  changing  his  mind.  France  invited  to  re 
newal  of  overtures,  three  envoys  were  sent,  and  the 
war  clouds  rolled  by — in  spite  of  Hamilton. 


361 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII 

JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

DURING  this  period  of  madness,  the  Federalists 
took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  imitate  Great 
Britain  in  another  direction.  William  Pitt  had  in 
augurated  a  reign  of  terror  in  England  itself, 
crushing  out  all  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press. 
Over  life  and  liberty  the  Government  exercised  al 
most  despotic  sway.  The  Federalists  determined 
to  enact  and  enforce  similar  laws  here.  There  was 
too  much  liberty  of  the  press,  too  much  license  of 
the  tongue;  republican  ideas  were  a  menace,  and 
democratic  demagogues  must  be  put  down.  The 
outcome  of  this  demand  was  the  alien  and  sedition 
laws.  Their  essence  was  that  foreigners  could  live 
here  only  at  the  President's  pleasure,  and  that 
American  citizens  could  not  speak  or  write  their 
political  sentiments  without  incurring  the  dangers 
of  fine  and  imprisonment. 

Had  these  famous  enactments  been  able  to 
maintain  their  ground,  popular  government  would 
indeed  have  been  at  an  end.  That  the  purpose  of 
the  authors  of  this  legislation  was  the  complete 
overthrow  of  democracy  was  shown  afterward  by 

362 


JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

the  program  which  Hamilton  mapped  out.  He 
advised  that  a  large  standing  army  be  maintained, 
that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts  be  ex 
tended,  that  aliens  objectionable  to  the  Govern 
ment  be  sent  away;  that  the  President  be  given 
power  to  appoint  peace  officers  in  each  county;  that 
the  States  be  divided  into  small  judicial  districts 
with  a  Federal  judge  in  each,  appointed  by  the 
President;  and  that  large  States  be  cut  up  into 
several  divisions  so  that  they  might  be  more  ef 
fectually  controlled  by  the  General  Government! 

Against  the  mighty  efforts  Federalism  was 
making  toward  centralization,  Jefferson  and  Mad 
ison  hurled  the  celebrated  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
resolutions.  Stripped  of  all  verbal  drapery,  the 
doctrine  set  forth  in  these  papers  was  that  if  Con 
gress  made  laws  which  violated  the  compact  be 
tween  the  States  such  laws  were  not  binding. 

They  set  forth  the  Jeffersonian  creed,  to  wit, 
that  the  Union  was  the  result  of  voluntary  com 
pact  between  free,  independent  States;  that  these 
States  expressed  in  writing  the  powers  they  were 
granting  to  the  General  Government;  and  that  this 
General  Government  was  therefore  one  of  limited 
powers — the  limits  being  prescribed  in  the  Consti 
tution  itself.  For  Congress  to  go  beyond  these  lim 
its  was  usurpation. 

It  was  during  this  period  of  excitement,  when 
further  encroachments  upon  the  power  of  the 

363 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

States  was  feared,  that  Virginia,  as  John  Randolph 
declared,  built  the  great  armory  in  Richmond  in 
order  that  she  might  be  ready  to  defend  her  rights. 

The  opinion  which  Edmund  Randolph  gave 
Madison  on  this  vexed  question  of  nullification  is 
very  striking. 

Randolph  conceded  that  there  must  necessarily 
be,  somewhere  within  the  nation,  an  ultimate 
sovereign  power  which  could  veto  the  usurpations 
of  a  lawless  Congress.  He  argued  that  the  people  in 
each  State  (not  the  Legislatures)  could  declare  an 
unconstitutional  law  null  and  void,  and  that  when 
three-fourths  of  the  States  thus  declared  against 
Congress  the  Government  would  be  overwhelmed. 

As  Vice-President,  Mr.  Jefferson's  position  was 
comparatively  happy.  His  duties  were  not  arduous, 
and  his  responsibilities  were  light.  To  preside  in 
the  Senate,  to  prepare  from  his  commonplace  book 
a  Manual  of  Parliamentary  Practise;  to  keep  a 
close  watch  on  the  movements  of  the  Federalists, 
while  with  a  judicious  distribution  of  private  let 
ters  he  kept  the  republicans  in  line — these  were  the 
easy  tasks  of  his  period  of  waiting  for  John  Adams 
to  ground  his  vessel. 

The  salary  of  his  office  was  welcome;  for  ready 
cash  was  never  too  plentiful  at  Monticello,  where 
farming  was  precarious  and  house-building  chronic. 

364 


JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

His  household  had  now  lost  one  of  its  treasures, 
for  the  beautiful  Maria  had  married  her  cousin, 
John  Eppes,  and  had  gone  to  her  new  home  of 
Edgehill. 

At  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Adams's  term,  the  Vice- 
President  had  made  overtures  to  him,  seeking  to 
establish  relations  of  cordiality  and  confidence. 
They  had  worked  in  harness  together  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  American  struggle,  had  been  con 
genial  in  Europe;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  most  con 
ciliatory  of  men,  would  have  been  glad  to  resume 
the  old  familiar  intercourse.  Mr.  Adams  was  not 
averse  to  this,  met  Mr.  Jefferson's  advances  cor 
dially,  and  advised  with  him  as  to  the  sending  of 
envoys  to  France.  The  President  was  inclined  to 
make  up  a  non-partizan  embassy  and  to  name  Mr. 
Madison  as  one  of  the  members.  His  Cabinet,  how 
ever,  opposed  him,  threatened  to  resign,  carried 
their  point,  and  thus  won  their  first  triumph  over 
their  President. 

After  this  the  relations  between  Mr.  Adams  and 
Mr.  Jefferson  were  merely  formal.  As  the  policy 
of  the  administration  developed  itself,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  position  as  leader  of  an  opposition  was  recog 
nized.  That  he  would  be  the  rival  candidate  at  the 
next  election  was  realized  by  all  parties.  The  sage 
of  Monticello,  scanning  the  horizon  from  his  lofty 
outlook,  noted  the  political  weather  as  carefully  as 
recorded  rainfall,  snow  depth,  and  wind  change. 

365 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Mr.  Adams  made  no  move  which  his  wary  rival  did 
not  see  and  study.  The  improved  plow  turned  Vir 
ginia  sod,  the  new  thrasher  took  the  place  of  horse- 
hoofs  and  flails;  the  flowing  pen  marked  the  lines 
of  political  battle;  and  his  correspondents  through 
out  the  land — the  men  who  guided  republican 
legions  in  each  State — were  patiently  drilled  in  the 
art  of  separating  political  chaff  from  wheat. 

During  all  the  heat  of  that  presidential  cam 
paign  Jefferson  was  cool  and  courageous.  Not  one 
ell  did  he  depart  from  the  even  tenor  of  his  way. 

He  entertained  as  freely  as  ever,  and  not  more 
so.  He  wrote  as  copiously  as  ever,  not  appreciably 
more  so.  He  was  as  silent  as  ever  under  newspa 
per  attacks;  and  all  the  thunders  of  New  England 
preachers  could  not  keep  him  from  going  as  usual 
to  hear  Priestley,  the  Unitarian,  or  could  extort 
from  him  one  word  to  negative  the  accusation  that 
he  was  an  infidel  and  the  father  of  mulatto  chil 
dren. 

When  Hamilton's  friends  called  him  an  atheist 
in  religion  and  a  fanatic  in  politics  he  was  silent; 
when  he  was  accused  of  denying  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  he  was  silent.  Only  once  did  he  ever  no 
tice  men  who  abused  him,  and  that  was  when  he 
was  charged  with  having  embezzled  the  property 
of  the  widow  and  orphan.  And  his  denial  of  even 
this  foul  statement  was  not  written  for  newspa 
pers. 

366 


JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

Historians  Henry  Adams,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  other  writers,  who  are 
modern  outcroppings  of  the  old  Federalist  vein, 
amuse  one  another  by  keeping  alive  the  legend  of 
Jefferson's  "  timidity  and  vacillation."  Because  he 
would  not  stoop  to  personal  brawls,  because  he 
would  not  lower  himself  to  have  a  newspaper  con 
troversy  with  Hamilton,  he  has  been  pictured  as  a 
coward  who  could  be  frightened  from  any  position 
he  took,  and  scared  off  from  any  route  he  proposed 
to  travel.  Political  prejudice,  partizan  rancor,  and 
intemperate  abuse  could  not  go  much  further  than 
this  in  scouting  facts. 

In  his  day,  Mr.  Jefferson  combated  a  greater 
number  of  laws  which  were  oppressive,  customs 
which  were  stale,  tendencies  which  were  undemo 
cratic,  and  fixed  opinions  which  were  popular  than 
any  other  man  in  public  life.  He  attacked  systems 
and  creeds  where  they  were  most  sensitive.  He 
aroused  vested  interests  which  were  the  most  pow 
erful,  and  which  when  alarmed  are  the  most  vin 
dictive.  Yet  never  once  in  all  his  long  life  did  he 
falter,  surrender,  or  apostatize. 

He  took  the  unpopular  side  of  slavery,  and  held 
to  it.  He  defied  the  religious  bigotry  of  his  times, 
and  continued  to  defy  it.  He  challenged  the  or 
ganized  power  of  land  monopoly  and  class  rule  in 
his  own  State  and  overthrew  it.  He  dared  to  take 
issue  with  the  great  Washington  himself,  in  the 

367 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

State  where  they  both  lived,  and  into  the  ears  of 
the  dying  Washington  rang  the  shouts  of  Jeffer 
son's  victory  as  Virginia  swung  away  from  Fed 
eralism  and  marshaled  her  hosts  for  Jefferson  and 
Democracy. 

Do  cowards  raise  and  ride  such  storms  as 
these? 

Do  men  who  are  "  weak  and  irresolute  "  plan 
such  campaigns,  and  win  such  triumphs  as  these? 

One  is  not  much  surprised  that  Henry  Adams 
should  preserve  in  his  books  the  hereditary  hatred 
of  the  Adamses  for  Thomas  Jefferson;  but  when 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  his  Winning  of  the  West, 
refers  to  our  great  leaders  as  "  politicians  of  the  in 
famous  stripe  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  James  Mad 
ison,"  and  alludes  to  Jefferson,  time  and  again, 
as  timid,  weak,  and  vacillating,  one  is  pained,  dis 
appointed,  discouraged. 

Comparisons,  if  odious,  are  sometimes  the  only 
methods  of  measurement. 

It  so  happens  that  since  Mr.  Koosevelt's  book 
was  written  he  himself  has  assumed  the  role  of  a 
great  reformer.  In  New  York  State  he  was  given 
power  and  opportunity  to  effect  reforms,  to  destroy 
the  wicked,  and  to  purify  the  political  atmosphere. 
In  his  State  of  New  York  he  had  just  the  same 
chances  to  combat  hoary  wrongs  as  Jefferson  en 
joyed  in  Virginia. 

As  President  of  the  United  States,  also,  Mr. 
368 


JEFFERSON   VICE-PRESIDENT 

Koosevelt  has  had  the  widest  field,  the  largest  op 
portunity,  to  show  his  courage  and  his  ability. 

There  was  class  greed  to  curb,  as  in  Jefferson's 
day. 

Common  humanity,  sorely  oppressed,  called  for 
a  champion,  as  in  Jefferson's  day. 

The  weak,  trampled  upon  by  the  strong,  cried 
aloud  for  mercy,  as  in  Jefferson's  day. 

Is  Mr.  Koosevelt  a  "  politician  of  the  infamous 
stripe"? 

By  no  means. 

Is  he  "weak,  timid,  vacillating"? 

Far  from  it. 

Then  where  are  his  trophies,  such  as  Jefferson 
won? 

What  battles  has  he  fought  for  the  people,  such 
as  Jefferson  fought?  What  vested  wrongs  has  he 
abolished,  what  abuses  has  he  remedied,  what  evil 
laws  has  he  repealed,  what  unjust  system  has  he 
reformed,  what  victim  of  social  and  industrial 
tyranny  has  he  freed? 

Where  has  he  confronted  class  despotism  and, 
with  battle-ax  in  hand,  said,  "Turn  loose!"? 

Yes,  comparisons  are  odious. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  will  be  fortunate  if,  after  his 
reign  is  over,  posterity  shall  forget  that  he  pil 
loried  Thomas  Jefferson  as  "  a  politician  of  the  in 
famous  stripe." 

25  369 


CHAPTER    XXXIX 

DEFEAT   FOR   THE    FEDERALISTS 

IT  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  period  in  which 
partizan  rancor  raged  with  greater  violence.  No 
body  escaped,  and  slander  recognized  no  limits. 
George  Washington  was  denounced  as  defaulter,  a 
man  who  had  debauched  his  country,  the  tool  of 
Great  Britain,  and  the  dupe  of  Hamilton;  James 
Monroe  was  abused  as  a  fool  and  a  bribe-taker;  and 
Jefferson  was  assailed  as  an  atheist,  a  robber  of  the 
widow  and  orphan,  a  father  of  mulatto  children,  an 
enemy  to  law,  order,  and  property.  As  to  Hamilton, 
it  became  necessary  to  prove  that  he  was  not  a  cor 
rupt  Treasurer;  and  he  did  it  by  confessing  a  filthy, 
disgraceful  amour  with  a  married  woman  named 
Maria  Reynolds.  Maria's  husband  was  a  party  to 
the  intrigue,  and  Hamilton's  own  residence  was 
often  the  place  of  assignation. 

This  violence  of  political  passion  seems  to  have 
had  its  origin  in  the  Jay  Treaty  excitement.  Riot 
ous  crowds  thronged  the  streets  of  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  and  other  large  cities.  Jay  was  burned 
in  effigy,  and  Hamilton  was  stoned.  Nothing  but 
the  unwearied  efforts  of  the  merchant  class,  the 

370 


DEFEAT    FOR    THE    FEDERALISTS 

strength  of  Washington,  and  the  alarm  which 
friends  of  the  Government  began  to  feel  for  its  very 
existence,  ever  turned  the  tide  and  rammed  that 
odious  treaty  down  the  throats  of  the  people. 


President  Adams  was  inclined  to  take  himself 
as  seriously  as  Washington  had  done,  and  to  affect 
an  attitude  of  stateliness.  In  George  Washington, 
form  and  ceremony  and  a  pose  of  loftiness  were 
more  or  less  natural.  People  conceded  all  that  to 
so  great  a  man.  Back  of  him,  and  whatever  he 
might  choose  to  do,  was  a  record  which  said,  "  It  is 
my  right." 

Therefore,  when  George  Washington's  cream- 
colored  coach  and  his  six  magnificent  horses 
pranced  through  the  streets  of  Philadelphia, 
with  liveried  white  servants,  outriders,  etc., 
nobody  audibly  lifted  the  voice  of  lamentation. 
George  Washington  and  "  Lady  Washington " 
were  unique,  a  law  unto  themselves,  a  noble  pair 
at  whom  "  filthy  Democrats  "  must  not  rail — except 
in  newspapers,  private  letters,  and  low-voiced  con 
versation. 

But  when  John  Adams  essayed  to  bend  this 
particular  bow  of  Ulysses,  the  effect  was  not  happy. 
In  his  way,  John  Adams  was  a  worthy  man,  but  he 
was  not  George  Washington.  And  Mrs.  Abigail 
Adams  was  a  most  estimable  wife,  mother,  neigh- 

371 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

bor,  friend,  and  Christian — but  Mrs.  Abigail  was 
not  "  Lady  Washington." 

Therefore,  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  adminis 
tration  President  Adams  collided  with  the  Demo 
cratic  spirit  which  Washington  had  only  felt  at  the 
close  of  his.  Andrew  Jackson  had  stood  against 
the  congressional  vote  of  confidence  in  Washing 
ton;  and  Matthew  Lyon  now  began  a  rebellion 
against  the  forms  and  ceremonials  which  Washing 
ton  had  established,  and  which  Adams  wished  to 
continue. 

Congress  was  Federalist,  the  fashions  of  the 
time  were  Federalist,  and  Lyon  was  Democratic. 
Batteries  of  ridicule  and  abuse  were  opened  upon 
him,  as  is  the  case  always.  Lyon  was  not  a  scholar, 
but  he  was  far  from  being  either  fool  or  vul 
garian. 

His  father  had  lost  his  life  resisting  British 
tyranny  in  Ireland,  and  Matthew  Lyon,  at  the  age 
of  fifteen,  had  fled  to  this  country  for  refuge.  He 
had  received  some  schooling  in  Ireland,  and  he 
seems  to  have  continued  his  education  in  this  coun 
try.  Marrying  a  niece  of  Ethan  Allen,  he  settled 
in  Vermont,  in  1774. 

His  natural  position,  as  an  Irishman,  was  with 
the  colonists  in  their  rebellion;  and  he  was  one  of 
the  Green  Mountain  boys,  who  under  Ethan  Allen, 
made  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga.  He  continued  to 
serve  during  the  war  and  distinguished  himself. 

372 


DEFEAT    FOR    THE    FEDERALISTS 

He  was  promoted  from  grade  to  grade  until  he  be 
came  colonel;  and  after  the  war  he  was  a  leading 
man  in  Vermont,  both  in  business  and  politics. 
His  first  wife  dying,  he  married  the  daughter  of 
Governor  Thomas  Chittenden.  Serving  constantly 
in  the  Legislature,  he  held  high  positions  in  the 
State  administration,  such  as  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  War  and  Deputy  Secretary  of  the  Council. 
He  founded  the  town  of  Fair  Haven,  and  estab 
lished  manufactories  on  Poultney  Kiver.  He 
erected  a  paper-mill,  a  printing-press,  corn-mills, 
sawmills,  and  ironworks.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
to  make  paper  from  the  bark  of  the  basswood-tree. 
Under  his  practical  touch  this  rural  wilderness 
wThich  he  had  settled  became  one  of  the  most  flour 
ishing  business  centers  in  New  England. 

From  the  bark  of  the  forest  tree  the  ingenious 
Irishman  made  paper,  and  upon  this  paper  of  his 
own  make  he  printed  the  "  Farmer's  Library/'  a 
small  journal  edited  by  himself  and  his  son  James 
— who  also  set  the  type.  He  also  published  books 
at  New  Haven,  one  of  these  being  a  Life  of  Ben 
jamin  Franklin.  In  a  section  where  Federalism 
was  entrenched,  Lyon  made  the  fight  for  Democracy. 
He  met  with  all  kinds  of  obstacles.  Other  papers 
would  not  publish  his  articles.  To  get  a  hearing  he 
was  compelled  to  run  a  paper  of  his  own.  Defeated 
time  and  again  for  Congress,  he  at  length  won  the 
seat,  and  so  it  was  that  Matthew  Lyon  become  a 

373 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

thorn  in  the  flesh  to  John  Adams,  and  to  Federal 
ism  generally. 

When  he  asked  to  be  excused  from  the  childish 
pageantry  of  parading  through  the  streets  to  at 
tend  upon  the  President,  he  was  laughed  at,  and  the 
excuse  contemptuously  granted.  But  when  he  per 
sisted  in  his  attitude,  again  sought  exemption  from 
the  procession,  and  Congress  realized  that  public- 
approval  was  about  to  give  its  support  to  Lyon, 
angry  debate  took  the  place  of  ridicule. 

From  this  time  on  he  was  made  the  butt  for 
Federalist  sarcasm  and  abuse.  Old  slanders,  of  the 
local  envy  type,  were  raked  up  and  circulated.  The 
soldier  of  Ticonderoga,  Bennington,  and  Saratoga 
was  accused  of  being  a  coward.  A  young  member 
named  Griswold  was  put  forward  to  publicly  insult 
the  offensive  Irishman.  He  did  so,  and  Lyon  spat 
in  his  face. 

Later,  Griswold  armed  himself  with  a  big  stick, 
came  to  Lyon's  desk  in  the  House,  just  after 
prayers,  and,  while  Lyon  was  looking  down  at  some 
papers,  struck  him  over  the  head,  raining  blow  after 
blow  upon  him.  Lyon,  struggling  from  amid  seats 
and  desks,  sought  to  close  in  with  Griswold,  but 
could  not.  Snatching  up  the  tongs  from  the 
nearest  fireplace,  he  struck  his  assailant  with  them, 
and  at  this  turn  in  the  combat  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  regained  his  parliamentary  habit  and  lustily 
called  for  "  Order." 

374 


DEFEAT    FOR    THE    FEDERALISTS 

Griswold  caught  the  tongs,  Lyon  the  stick,  and 
down  they  went  on  the  floor,  Lyon  underneath. 
Members  rushed  up,  Griswold's  legs  were  gripped, 
and  he  was  pulled  off,  Lyon  fighting  all  the  time, 
and  expressing  regrets  that  they  had  not  been  al 
lowed  to  fight  it  out.  Griswold  had  not  been  hurt; 
Lyon  was  bruised  and  bloody. 

And  the  Federalist  party  gathered  all  its 
strength  to  expel  from  the  House — Griswold? 

No!    Lyon  and  Griswold. 

Bitter,  acrimonious  debates  followed,  the  ques 
tion  being  made  a  party  issue,  but  Lyon  held  his 
seat.  Griswrold  was  not  even  censured.  Then 
Adams  determined  to  crush  him  with  the  power  of 
the  Federal  judiciary.  He  was  arrested,  tried  and 
convicted  under  the  sedition  law  for  an  alleged  libel 
which  would  now  pass  any  presidential  target  with 
out  scoring  a  hit.  Lyon  had  accused  Adams  of 
avarice,  vanity,  and  childish  love  of  pomp.  The 
Federal  judge  wras  so  shocked  at  this  language  that 
he  threw  Lyon  into  jail  and  fined  him  one  thousand 
dollars. 

The  prisoner  was  reelected  to  Congress  while  he 
lay  in  jail.  After  the  expiration  of  his  four  months' 
sentence,  he  would  still  have  remained  in  custody 
had  not  political  and  personal  friends  taken  up  a 
collection  to  pay  the  fine.  Apollos  Austin,  of  Ver 
mont,  gathered  contributions  in  silver  and  took 
them  South;  but  General  Stevens  Thompson 

375 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Mason,  of  Loudoun  County,  Virginia,  had  ridden 
North,  his  saddle-bags  stuffed  with  gold;  and  it  was 
Mason  who  paid  the  fine.  From  his  cell,  the  uncon 
querable  Lyon,  who  had  refused  to  ask  Adams  for 
clemency,  went  back  in  triumph  to  Congress.  The 
very  schoolhouses  poured  forth  their  children  to 
swell  the  ovation  which  welcomed  the  valiant  Dem 
ocrat  to  liberty. 

Bayard,  of  Delaware,  renewed  the  effort  to  expel 
Lyon  from  Congress,  but  failed. 

Under  the  alien  and  sedition  laws  many  oth 
ers  besides  Lyon  were  persecuted  and  punished. 
Frightened  foreigners,  most  of  whom  were  French 
refugees,  fled  in  terror  to  the  ships,  and  put  to 
sea.  Federal  judges  became  hot  partizans,  and 
stump  speeches  volleyed  and  thundered  from  the 
bench. 

The  Father  of  his  Country  mentally  laid  the 
Farewell  Address  upon  the  table,  and  made  his 
way  into  the  thickest  of  the  party  warfare.  All  of 
his  influence  was  exerted  to  bring  Patrick  Henry 
over  to  the  Federal  side,  and  the  final  flash  of  the 
sun  of  this  great  orator,  who  was  far  gone  into  the 
evening  of  life,  was  in  behalf  of  the  party  of  the 
alien  and  sedition  laws.  Washington  himself  rode 
ten  miles  to  vote. 

It  is  a  mournful  fact  that  the  last  outburst  of 
Washington's  temper  was  aroused  by  the  mention 
of  the  name  of  James  Monroe,  whose  only  sin  was 

376 


DEFEAT    FOR    THE    FEDERALISTS 

that  he  could  not  hate  the  French  as  Hamilton 
hated  them. 

In  New  York  the  struggle  was  one  of  life  and 
death  between  the  factions  of  Schuyler-Hamilton 
and  Clinton-Burr.  The  Republicans  won.  In  his 
rage,  Hamilton  proposed  to  Governor  Jay  to  recall 
the  Legislature,  which  had  adjourned  sine  die,  and 
to  so  change  the  State  laws  as  to  set  aside  the  elec 
tion  just  held.  John  Jay  was  British,  aristocratic, 
and  partizan,  but  he  was  honest,  and  he  scornfully 
refused  to  do  Hamilton's  dirty  work. 


President  Adams  at  length  decided  to  have  a 
Cabinet  he  could  control.  He  asked  Pickering  to  re 
sign.  Timothy  said  he  was  poor  and  needed  the 
salary,  therefore  he  could  not  resign.  Adams 
doubtless  remembered  son-in-law  Smith,  whom 
Pickering  had  opposed  on  the  score  of  his  poverty, 
and  he  dismissed  Timothy  summarily.  McHenry, 
Secretary  of  War,  he  also  forced  to  resign.  To  fill 
these  vacancies,  John  Marshall  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  State  and  Samuel  Dexter  Secretary  of 
War.  Oliver  Wolcott,  the  most  arrant  knave  of 
that  era,  was  able  to  hoodwink  Mr.  Adams  com 
pletely,  and  his  resignation  was  handed  in  at  his 
own  time  and  on  his  own  terms.  He  had  acted  as 
British  spy  in  Washington's  Cabinet,  concerting 
with  Hammond  the  plot  which  destroyed  Randolph, 

377 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

and  he  now  acted  as  Hamilton's  spy  in  Adanis's 
Cabinet,  betraying  the  secrets  and  plotting  the 
ruin  of  his  chief.  For  Hamilton,  furious  because 
of  the  peace  with  France  and  the  miscarriage 
of  the  Miranda  scheme,  determined  to  destroy 
Adams.  From  Wolcott  he  secured  all  the  inside 
facts  which  that  traitor  could  give,  and  Adams's 
confidential  adviser  actually  helped  to  prepare,  and 
did  revise,  the  secret  pamphlet  which  was  meant  to 
transfer  Federalist  votes  from  Adams,  presidential 
candidate,  to  Pinckney,  the  vice-presidential  can 
didate.  Should  the  people  give  a  majority  vote  to 
the  Federalist  ticket,  Hamilton's  scheme  was  to  put 
into  the  presidency  a  man  who  had  not  been  chosen 
for  that  office,  and  to  degrade  the  man  who  had. 
Those  people  who  berate  Aaron  Burr  for  not  having 
shown  more  activity  in  working  for  Jefferson  when 
there  was  a  tie  vote  between  them  should  not  over 
look  the  contemporary  standard  of  New  York 
morality.  Hamilton,  Clinton,  Burr — there  wasn't 
a  trick  in  the  game  which  either  of  these  political 
gamblers  would  not  use  to  win  the  stakes.  Hamil 
ton  had  intended  his  stab  at  John  Adams  to  be 
secret,  but  Aaron  Burr  also  knew  how  to  employ 
spies.  Wolcott  was  Hamilton's  spy  on  Adams,  and 
some  equally  trusted  traitor  was  Burr's  spy  on 
Hamilton.  The  pamphlet  was  no  sooner  printed 
than  Burr  had  a  copy,  and  was  using  it  with  ter 
rible  effect.  The  Republicans  it  warned,  encour- 

378 


DEFEAT    FOR   THE    FEDERALISTS 

aged,  solidified;  the  Federalists  it  dismayed,  di 
vided,  overwhelmed  with  confusion. 

After  the  fiercest  combat  ever  known,  Jefferson 
and  Burr  were  elected — the  result  being  largely  due 
to  Burr's  splendid  victory  over  Hamilton  in  New 
York. 

Mr.  Jefferson  has  said  that  the  Federalists, 
routed  at  the  polls,  retreated  into  the  judiciary. 

This  is  true.  Mr.  Adams  and  his  party  knew 
where  their  haven,  their  fortress  was,  and  they  ran 
into  it.  Congress  increased  the  judgeships,  estab 
lishing  circuits  with  three  judges  each,  besides  at 
torneys,  clerks,  and  marshals.  These  posts  were 
hurriedly  filled  with  stalwart  partizans.  President 
Adams  kept  on  filling  up  the  offices  with  Federal 
ists  till  nine  o'clock  of  the  last  night  of  his  term. 
The  whole  administration  was  made  a  deep,  solid 
political  color.  No  Republican  spot,  stripe,  or  trim 
ming  appeared  anywhere  to  relieve  the  dull  monot 
ony  of  Federalism. 

John  Marshall,  already  Secretary  of  State,  was 
given  an  additional  office.  He  was  appointed  Chief 
Justice,  a  place  from  which  he  was  to  fulminate 
rank  Federalism  with  authoritative  voice  for  more 
than  a  generation. 

The  time  being  short  and  the  object  worthy,  Mr. 
Adams  continued  to  sign  commissions,  and  John 
Marshall,  by  candle-light,  continued  to  countersign. 
At  midnight,  so  the  story  goes,  Levi  Lincoln  stepped 

379 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

into  the  room,  drew  Jefferson's  watch  upon  the  in 
dustrious  Marshall,  and  made  him  stop. 

One  of  the  least  happy  of  men  must  have  been 
President  John  Adams!  His  administration  con 
demned,  his  party  dead,  his  Secretary  watched  and 
arrested  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  his  plight  was 
lamentable. 

It  had  been  bad  enough  for  him  at  his  inaugura 
tion  that  the  shouts  should  be  for  George  Washing 
ton — not  for  John  Adams;  it  would  be  infinitely 
worse  now  at  his  rival's  inauguration,  when  the 
shouting  would  be  for  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Who  would  cheer  for  John  Adams? 

Not  the  Kepublicans,  for  they  hated  him;  not 
the  Federalists,  for  they  loved  him  no  more. 

Hamilton  had  denounced  him,  and  the  very  men 
who  had  slain  the  Federalist  party  accused  Adams 
of  the  crime. 

Why  remain  and  face  the  humiliations  of  inau 
guration  day?  Why  not  order  the  carriage  for  an 
early  hour  and  slip  away  from  John  Kandolph's 
"  vast  and  desolate  city  "  before  the  crowds  were 
churning  the  mud?  In  short,  was  it  not  time  for 
John  Adams  to  go? 

Home — home  to  Quincy  and  to  Mistress  Abi 
gail.  Not  that  he  was  scared,  for  fear  made  no  ap 
proaches  to  him;  but  because  he  was  not  feeling 
well,  because  his  heart  was  sore  and  his  temper 
sour  and  his  mind  droopy;  and  because  shame, 

380 


DEFEAT    FOR    THE    FEDERALISTS 

envy,  jealousy,  rage,  and  disappointment  were  tear 
ing  him  like  evil  spirits,  he  would  order  his  horses 
for  the  very  early  morning  and  give  an  exhibi 
tion  of  petty  spite  and  childish  petulance,  for  a 
similar  display  of  which  the  naughty  urchin  would 
be  punitively  spanked. 


381 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

UNDER  the  old  system  of  conducting  presiden 
tial  elections,  that  candidate  who  received  the 
highest  number  of  votes  became  President,  the 
next  Vice-President. 

Mr.  Jefferson  in  1796  had  not  been  a  candidate 
for  the  second  place;  nobody  had  voted  for  him  to 
be  Vice-President;  yet  he  took  the  vice-presidency, 
because  that  was  the  law.  He  and  John  Adams  had 
each  striven  for  the  presidency,  while  other  candi 
dates  contested  the  second  place.  Yet  neither  of 
the  candidates  whom  the  people  had  voted  for  as 
Vice-President  was  allowed  to  serve. 

Such  was  the  law,  and  it  should  be  remembered 
in  gaging  the  moral  guilt  of  Aaron  Burr. 

Thomas  Jefferson  and  Aaron  Burr  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1800  received  73  votes  each;  John  Adams, 
on  the  opposition  ticket,  had  65. 

Thus  the  election  was  thrown  into  the  House, 
and  the  law  plainly  directed  that  a  President  should 
be  chosen  by  the  House  from  the  candidates  who 
had  received  the  highest  number  of  votes.  Appar 
ently  the  makers  of  the  Constitution  intended  to 

382 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

vest  the  House  with  some  discretion.  The  area  of 
this  discretion  was  limited,  but  it  was  there.  Henry 
Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams  acted  upon  this  idea 
when  they  afterward  combined  to  defeat  the  will  of 
the  people,  and  to  oust  the  majority  candidate, 
AndrewT  Jackson. 

They  were  punished  politically  for  this  combi 
nation,  but  history  has  not  placed  Clay  and  Adams 
in  her  Rogues'  Gallery. 

Now  in  1800  the  custom  as  to  presidential  elec 
tions  was  not  settled.  By  law,  the  electoral  col 
leges  were  vested  with  the  power  of  choosing  for 
President  and  Vice-President  men  whose  names 
had  not  been  before  the  people  at  all.  The  Hamil- 
tonian  anti-Democratic  plan  gave  them  this  power 
for  the  express  purpose  of  depriving  "the  great 
beast "  of  the  right  to  choose  its  rulers.  Only  by 
the  irresistible  force  of  popular  sentiment  have  the 
electors  been  made  the  mere  registers  of  the  will  of 
the  people. 

In  1800  the  ideas  controlling  the  case  were  so 
vague  that  nobody  claimed  the  election  of  Jefferson 
to  the  first  place,  and  Burr  to  the  second. 

Ballots  did  not  specify  for  which  place  the 
presidential  candidate  had  contested.  Therefore 
the  Republican  ticket  of  1800  was  simply  Jefferson 
and  Burr — represented  by  73  votes  in  the  electoral 
college. 

These  two  names  being  the  highest,  the  law  re- 
383 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

quired  that  they  should  both  go  before  the  House 
to  be  voted  for  as  candidates  for  the  presidency. 

Now,  then,  what  ought  Burr  to  have  done? 

His  party  had  not  intended  him  for  the  presi 
dency — no  voter  had  so  intended.  Should  he  take 
the  office  by  operation  of  law?  If  Congress  chose 
to  exercise  its  discretion  and  make  him  the  Presi 
dent,  should  he  accept? 

That  is  the  case,  and  the  whole  case.  Jefferson 
had  taken  the  office  of  Vice-President  by  operation 
of  law,  excluding  the  candidate  who  had  been 
chosen  by  the  people  for  that  lower  place.  Should 
the  rule  work  both  ways? 

A  man  of  the  nicest  honor  like  John  Jay  or 
James  Madison  would  not  have  hesitated.  He 
would  have  spurned  even  the  appearance  of  evil, 
would  not  have  allowed  his  name  used  to  defeat  the 
will  of  the  people,  would  not  have  allowed  political 
enemies  in  Congress  to  thrust  upon  him  an  office 
which  political  friends  had  not  intended  to  give. 
When  Federalism  resorted  to  strategy  to  divide  and 
conquer  the  Kepublicans  by  elevating  Burr  over 
Jefferson,  the  simplest  dictates  of  honor  required 
that  Burr  should  stand  by  his  friends  and  help  to 
defeat  the  plots  of  the  enemy. 

That  he  did  not  do  so  was  his  unpardonable  sin 
— unforgiven  by  his  party  and  by  the  historian. 

He  did  not  actively  aid  the  Federalists.  He 
stayed  at  Albany,  where  his  daughter  was  about  to 

384 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

marry,  and  where  legislative  duties  engaged  him. 
He  wrote  a  letter  repudiating  the  plot  of  the  Fed 
eralists  and  declining  to  give  aid  to  the  intrigue. 

He  may  have  meant  that  Federalism  should  con 
sider  him  a  Barkis  who  was  willing,  but  there  is  no 
proof  that  he  went  further  than  that. 

As  to  Hamilton,  the  record  is  positively  pain 
ful.  To  see  a  really  great  man  degrade  himself  to 
gratify  a  personal  spleen  is  never  an  inspiring 
sight. 

During  the  previous  campaign,  Hamilton  had 
exerted  himself  in  a  most  treacherous,  unscrupu 
lous  manner  to  have  Pinckney,  the  vice-presiden 
tial  candidate  on  the  Federalist  ticket,  come  in 
ahead  of  John  Adams. 

Now  that  Federalism  was  snowed  under,  he  set 
himself  to  sow  discord  between  Jefferson  and  Burr. 

He  wrote  to  that  wily  knave  Oliver  Wolcott  a 
letter  which  is  surely  one  of  the  meanest  extant. 
After  denouncing  Burr  for  being  bankrupt,  Hamil 
ton,  who  was  himself  insolvent,  says  in  reference  to 
Burr's  supposed  ambition  to  be  President:  "Yet 
it  may  be  well  to  throw  out  a  lure  for  him,  in 
order  to  tempt  him  to  start  for  the  place,  and 
then  lay  the  foundation  of  disunion  between  the  two 
chiefs."  So  it  would  seem  that  Burr  needed  tempt 
ing,  required  a  lure,  and  the  Federalists  were  to  lay 
the  net  in  order  to  bring  about  strife  between  Jef 
ferson  and  Burr. 

26  385 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  the  polit 
ical  strategy  of  the  Federalists  to  play  off  one  of 
these  Kepublican  chiefs  against  the  other,  and  the 
only  pretense  of  evidence  we  have  against  Burr  as 
to  his  conduct  at  this  time  comes  from  Federalist 
sources,  the  whole  case  assumes  a  new  aspect. 

Had  Burr  been  willing  to  go  to  Washington  and 
canvass  for  the  presidency,  had  he  made  the  pledges 
which  the  Bayards  of  Federalism  demanded,  and 
which  Jefferson's  friends  (unknown  to  Jefferson) 
did  make,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  would  have 
been  President  of  the  United  States.  It  only  needed 
that  he  should  crook  his  finger  in  the  way  of  active 
self-help. 

And  had  Aaron  Burr  become  President  who  can 
say  that  he  would  not  have  made  a  good  one — as 
good  as  K.  B.  Hayes,  for  example? 

There  were  turns  in  the  tide  of  national  fortunes 
during  the  next  few  years  when  his  indomitable 
courage,  his  fertility  of  resource,  his  decision  of 
character,  his  address  and  firmness,  might  have 
been  infinitely  valuable  to  his  country.  Let  us  deal 
justly  with  this  man.  His  nature  had  in  it  the  seeds 
of  good  and  of  evil,  and  when  his  fortunes  became 
desperate  he  soured  on  a  world  which  he  thought 
had  been  too  hard  on  him,  and  the  evil  of  his  nature 
developed.  It  made  him  a  criminal,  an  outlaw,  an 
Ishmaelite. 

But  who  is  so  very  wise  as  to  know  that,  had 
386 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

success  continued  to  reward  his  ambition,  he  would 
not  have  identified  that  ambition  with  the  best  in 
terests  of  his  native  land? 

Burr's  ability  was  conceded.  He  had  been  a 
brilliant  soldier.  As  New  York's  Attorney-General 
and  as  United  States  Senator  his  record  was  so  good 
that  his  name  had  been  voted  for  in  the  electoral 
colleges  twice  before  this.  By  sheer  force  of  will 
and  intellect  he  had  wrested  New  York  from  the 
Hamilton-Schuyler  faction,  in  defiance  of  the 
money  power  and  the  ultra-British  aristocracy.  It 
was  believed  that  his  morals  were  loose,  but  there 
had  been  no  sickening  Maria  Reynolds  exposures 
about  him,  and  his  family  relations  were  as  beauti 
ful  as  those  of  Jefferson  himself. 

It  was  thought  that  he  was  politically  tricky, 
but  nobody  had  accused  him  of  betraying  his  own 
party.  His  tricks  were  weapons  aimed  at  the  oppo 
sition,  and  they  were  popular  with  the  Eepublicans, 
for  they  had  gained  New  York.  He  had  never 
knifed  a  friend,  as  Hamilton  and  Wolcott  stabbed 
John  Adams.  He  had  not  tried  to  cut  the  ground 
from  under  the  feet  of  his  chief,  as  Hamilton  had 
done  in  the  recent  campaign.  He  was  a  hard 
fighter,  a  fertile  schemer,  a  selfish  office-hunter,  a 
man  whose  opinion  of  human  nature  was  low.  In 
other  words,  he  was  the  earliest  specimen  of  what 
afterward  became  recognized  as  a  distinct  type — 
he  was  a  New  York  politician. 

387 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

He  founded  Tammany,  and  set  it  going  upon  its 
mission — heavenward  or  hellward,  according  to  the 
point  of  view.  Health  and  recreation  were  not  his 
political  objects.  Patriotism  and  principles  were 
not  supposed  to  be  disturbers  of  his  slumbers. 
Politics  was  a  game,  its  stakes  the  spoils  of  office. 
The  loser  got  out;  the  winner  got  in.  Against  one's 
adversary  all  was  fair — for  it  was  war.  Hard  blows 
were  to  be  given  and  taken,  mines  to  be  sprung  and 
counter-mines  detected;  nets  to  be  laid  and  snares 
avoided. 

This  was  New  York  politics,  mildly  drawn,  and 
the  record  shows  that  Burr  was  no  whit  worse  than 
the  average. 

So  immoral  had  become  the  tone  that  Alexander 
Hamilton,  wishing  to  shirk  the  French  treaty  of 
1778,  had  argued  to  Washington  that  the  change 
of  government  in  France  had  annulled  the  contract, 
and  wishing  to  set  aside  the  presidential  candidate 
already  virtually  chosen  by  the  people  of  New  York, 
had  applied  to  Governor  Jay  to  reconvene  the  old 
Federalist  Legislature  in  extra  session,  so  that  a 
new  election  by  districts  could  be  ordered  and  the 
will  of  the  people  defeated.  So  far  had  the  feet  of 
reputable  statesmen  wandered  from  the  path  of 
common  rectitude  that  Hamilton  paid  the  husband 
of  his  paramour  almost  as  regularly  as  he  paid  his 
cook,  used  Wolcott  as  a  spy  upon  Adams,  and  en 
tered  upon  a  secret  league  with  Miranda  to  draw 

388 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

Washington  and  the  United  States  army  into  wild 
expeditions  of  conquest. 

In  the  Student's  History  of  the  United  States, 
the  learned  author  (who  makes  a  profession  of 
history  at  Harvard)  alludes  to  Aaron  Burr  as  "  a 
disreputable  politician  who  had  been  nominated 
for  the  vice-presidency  because  the  controlled  the 
votes  of  New  York."  It  is  a  great  pity  that  Ameri 
can  students  should  be  taught  history  in  any  such 
ramshackle  style  as  that.  Professor  Channing 
ought  to  know  that  at  the  time  Burr  was  nominated 
with  Jefferson  he  was  no  more  of  a  "  disreputable 
politician  "  than  Jefferson  himself.  Burr's  stand 
ing  in  the  republic  was  absolutely  as  good  as 
Jefferson's,  and  his  elevation  to  that  high  office  was 
less  dreaded  by  the  opposition  than  that  of  Jeffer 
son. 

As  proof  of  this,  examine  the  letters  and  wri 
tings  of  one  of  the  purest  and  ablest  of  contempo 
rary  Americans — Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton. 
The  words  of  such  a  witness  ought  to  be  conclusive, 
for  he  had  every  opportunity  to  know  the  men  and 
the  circumstances,  he  was  impartial  as  between 
Burr  and  Jefferson,  and  there  was  no  possible  mo 
tive  for  misstatement.  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carroll- 
ton,  had  long  known  both  Jefferson  and  Burr,  he 
•had  signed  the  Declaration  with  Jefferson,  and  had 
continuously  served  in  the  highest  places  with 
conspicuous  patriotism  and  ability.  With  a  "  dis- 

389 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

reputable  politician  "  it  is  simply  incredible  that 
he  should  have  had  any  sympathy.  If  ever  there 
was  a  purist  in  politics  and  religion  it  was  this 
old  Koman  of  Maryland.  There  was  no  higher 
type  of  citizen  anywhere.  Keputed  to  be  the 
richest  'man  in  America,  he  had  studied  and 
traveled  abroad,  knew  the  leading  men  of  Europe 
almost  as  well  as  he  did  those  of  America,  and  his 
record  as  a  patriot,  a  Christian,  a  statesman  proud 
of  his  country  and  anxious  for  its  future,  renders  it 
impossible  for  him  to  have  been  willing  to  see  "  a 
disreputable  politician  "  President  of  the  United 
States. 

Yet  in  a  letter  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  dated 
August  27,  1800,  Mr.  Carroll  states  his  preference 
for  Burr  over  Jefferson,  placing  it  upon  Burr's  de 
cision  of  character. 

Again,  in  February,  1801,  Mr.  Carroll  writes  to 
his  son,  "  I  hope  Burr  will  be  chosen  by  the  House 
of  Representatives." 

Farther  on,  in  the  same  letter,  this  stanch 
Federalist  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
is  unfit  to  govern  this  or  any  other  country. 

"  Burr,  I  suspect,  is  not  less  a  hypocrite  than 
Jefferson,  but  he  is  a  firm,  steady  man,  and  pos 
sessed,  it  is  said,  of  great  energy  and  decision." 

Here  we  have  Burr's  reputation  given  by  a  con 
temporary.  Shrewd  Mr.  Carroll  suspects  that  Burr 
may  be  as  hypocritical  as  Jefferson,  but  the  reputa- 

390 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

tion  which  Burr  has  made  convinces  the  Maryland 
statesman  that  Burr  is  "  firm,  steady,  decisive,  and 
energetic."  This  is  the  testimony  of  a  political 
enemy  to  both  candidates,  given  in  confidence  to  a 
son  at  the  time  the  two  candidates  are  before  the  people. 

Is  not  this  evidence  more  convincing  as  to  how 
Burr  stood  in  1800  than  the  mere  word  of  a  Har 
vard  professor  a  century  afterward?  Later  on, 
during  the  great  fight  in  New  York,  when  Hamil 
ton,  the  Federalist,  joined  forces  with  the  Demo 
cratic  factions  of  Clinton  and  Livingston  to  destroy 
Burr,  Mr.  Carroll  disapproved  the  course  of  his 
friend  Hamilton.  He  was  evidently  of  the  opinion 
that  Hamilton,  blinded  by  personal  hatred  to  Burr, 
was  losing  a  great  political  opportunity.  The  re 
sults  vindicated  Mr.  Carroll's  foresight.  Hamilton 
gratified  his  spleen  but  lost  his  party  and  his  life. 

If  history  be  worth  writing  at  all,  it  ought  to  be 
written  right — with  a  scorn  for  false  precedent, 
and  a  fearless  determination  to  find  out  the  truth— 
and  then  tell  it.  To  jog  along  repeating  statements 
which  owe  their  authority  only  to  repetition  is 
slovenly,  a  wrong  to  the  dead  as  well  as  to  the 
living  and  the  unborn. 

The  present  writer  is  no  partizan  of  Aaron  Burr, 
and  is  making  in  his  behalf  no  special  plea,  but  the 
author  who  says  that  Burr's  standing  as  a  man,  a 
lawyer,  and  a  politician  was  bad  in  the  year  1800 
simply  shuts  his  eyes  to  facts. 

391 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Turn  to  the  opinion  of  Gouverneur  Morris, 
Senator  from  New  York,  a  Federalist  who  knew  all 
about  both  Jefferson  and  Burr.  In  a  letter  to  Ham 
ilton,  Jan.  26,  1801,  Morris  states  that  the  Federal 
ists  after  full  consideration  are  inclined  to  support 
Burr  in  preference  to  Jefferson.  Why?  Because, 
as  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  afterward  stated  on  the 
floor  of  the  House,  they  considered  Burr  the  best 
man  of  the  two. 

They  believed  Jefferson  to  be  "  infected  with  all 
the  cold-blooded  vices,"  and  to  be  full  of  "  danger 
ous  principles."  They  looked  "  with  abhorrence  at 
a  Chief  Magistrate  of  America  who  shall  be  a  slave 
to  Virginia." 

As  to  Burr,  they  consider  him  "  as  equal  in 
worth  to  Jefferson,  or  equally  void  of  it."  The 
difference  between  the  two  is  that  Burr's  "  defects 
do  not  arise  from  want  of  energy  or  vigor." 

They  believe  that  "  to  courage  Burr  adds  gener 
osity,"  and  that  he  "  can  not  be  branded  with  the 
charge  of  ingratitude." 

Thus  we  have  the  testimony  of  two  of  the  most 
prominent  Federalists  in  America.  No  two  men 
stood  higher  than  Carroll  and  Morris,  and  what 
they  say  in  confidence  and  without  motive  for  mis- 
statement  is  as  convincing  as  it  is  possible  for 
human  evidence  to  be.  Take  what  they  assert  as 
true,  and  Dr.  Channing  is  wrong.  His  "  disrep 
utable  politician  "  comes  in  at  a  much  later  date. 

392 


JEFFERSON  AND  BURR  CONTEST 

Mr.  Morris  and  Mr.  Carroll  viewed  Burr  as 
a  political  enemy.  How  was  he  regarded  by  his 
political  friends?  Thomas  Jefferson  should  be  an 
authority  on  that  side,  and  his  testimony  given  at 
the  time  is  precisely  in  line  with  that  of  Mr.  Carroll 
and  Senator  Morris. 

In  a  letter  to  Burr,  dated  Dec.  15,  1800,  while 
congratulating  the  brilliant  New  Yorker  on  his 
election  as  Vice-President,  Jefferson  expresses  a  re 
gret  that  he,  Jefferson,  will  not  have  the  benefit  of 
Burr's  services  in  his  administration — evidently 
meaning  the  Cabinet.  "  I  had  endeavored  to  com 
pose  an  administration  whose  talents,  integrity, 
names,  and  dispositions  should  inspire  unbounded 
confidence  in  the  public  mind,  etc.  I  lose  you  from 
the  list,  etc." 

Mr.  Jefferson  classes  Burr  among  those  men  of 
integrity  who  inspired  unbounded  confidence  in  the 
public  mind,  and  with  whom  he  had  expected  to 
compose  his  Cabinet. 

And  there  is  nothing  in  Jefferson's  writings, 
written  at  this  time  or  previous  to  this  time,  which 
is  in  contradiction  to  what  he  wrote  Burr. 


393 


CHAPTER  XLI 

JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

REMAINING  at  Albany,  and  contenting  himself 
with  a  refusal  to  help  the  conspirators  at  Washing 
ton,  Burr  did  nothing  to  defeat  them.  This  atti 
tude  appeared  to  give  Mr.  Jefferson  satisfaction  at 
the  time,  for  he  wrote  to  his  daughter  that  the  Fed 
eralists  had  not  been  able  to  make  a  tool  of  Burr, 
and  that  the  conduct  of  that  gentleman  had  been 
honorable  throughout. 

As  day  after  day  passed  in  the  House,  and  no 
election  resulted,  excitement  rose  higher  and  higher 
throughout  the  country.  It  was  the  middle  of  Feb 
ruary.  If  by  March  4th  there  should  have  been  no 
choice  of  President,  regular  government  would  be 
at  an  end.  There  was  no  hold-over  machinery  which 
could  be  relied  upon.  A  new  convention  of  States 
would  have  to  be  called,  perhaps,  and  this  new  con 
vention  might  make  various  changes  which  numer 
ous  people  did  not  desire.  For  instance,  the  South 
might  lose  the  Federal  capital,  and  Delaware  might 
lose  her  statehood.  Evidently  it  was  to  the  interest 
of  all  parties  that  Federalism  should  not  defy  the 
country. 

394 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

Hotheads  began  to  talk  of  fighting,  and  in  one 
or  two  places  preparations  of  a  warlike  character 
were  made.  Threats  were  heard  that  no  Federalist 
should  have  the  presidency,  and  that  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  should  be  seated. 

If  Burr  had  been  chosen  there  would  have  been 
no  revolt;  Mr.  Jefferson  says  this  himself.  But  the 
Federalists  could  no  more  extract  a  pledge  from 
him  than  from  Jefferson. 

At  this  crisis  three  factors  entered  the  prob 
lem  and  influenced  the  Federalists  to  obey  the  peo 
ple,  and  prefer  Jefferson. 

One  was  the  fear  of  the  South  as  to  the  capital; 
another  was  the  fear  of  Delaware  that  Pennsyl 
vania  would  absorb  her;  and  the  third  was  the  fear 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  that  Burr's  elevation  would 
mean  his  own  extinction. 

A  student  of  the  situation  will  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that,  independent  of  Hamilton,  the 
other  two  considerations  would  have  compelled  the 
choice  of  Jefferson. 

With  Hamilton  the  least  of  his  motives  was  pa 
triotic.  His  opinion  of  Jefferson  was  as  bad  a  one 
as  one  man  could  have  of  another.  But  Jefferson 
did  not  live  in  New  York;  Burr  did,  and  that  fact 
made  a  world  of  difference.  It  was  simply  intoler 
able  to  Hamilton  to  have  his  detested  local  rival 
elected  to  the  presidency,  and  he  exerted  what  in 
fluence  he  could  to  have  Jefferson  chosen. 

395 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

What  that  influence  was  is  not  so  clear. 

Vermont,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  were  the 
pivotal  States,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  Hamilton 
controlled  either.  The  vote  of  any  one  of  these 
would  be  enough  to  elect  Jefferson.  Pugnacious 
and  incorruptible  Matthew  Lyon  was  one  of  the 
Representatives  from  Vermont,  and  the  nephew  of 
Gouverneur  Morris  was  the  other.  Gouverneur 
Morris  was  Senator  from  New  York,  and  had  his 
own  jealousy  and  dislike  of  Burr,  his  own  independ 
ent  and  honorable  belief  that  the  choice  of  the  peo 
ple  should  be  respected  by  Congress,  and  favored 
Jefferson  from  the  first.  That  his  nephew  absented 
himself  and  allowed  Lyon  to  cast  the  whole  vote  of 
Vermont  for  Jefferson  was  probably  due  to  the 
influence  of  the  rich,  adroit,  powerful  New  York 
Senator,  Gouverneur  Morris. 

Maryland  cast  a  neutral  ballot  at  the  final  vote, 
and  who  knows  that  Hamilton's  influence  caused 
her  to  do  it?  The  fear  of  losing  the  capital  had 
intensely  excited  Baltimore,  and  local  influences 
of  the  strongest  kind  had  been  brought  to  bear. 
But  when  she  at  last  voted  for  Jefferson,  he  no 
longer  needed  her  support. 

As  to  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  he  was  the  Mephis- 
topheles  of  the  whole  episode.  He  extended  his 
open  palms  in  both  directions,  seeking  gifts.  Burr 
could  have  bought  the  presidency  through  Bayard. 
Jefferson  could  have  arranged  a  deal  through  Bay- 

396 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

ard.  Neither  would  trade  with  him.  Yet  he  voted 
for  Burr  thirty-five  times  and  not  once  for  Jeffer 
son!  On  the  final  ballot,  when  his  vote  did  not 
affect  the  result,  he  voted  a  blank  piece  of  paper. 
In  1802  he  explained  his  vote  on  the  floor  of  Con 
gress  by  saying  that  in  voting  for  Aaron  Burr  he 
was  supporting  "  the  one  whom  he  thought  the 
greater  and  better  man."  Yet  scholarly  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge  and  voluminous  historian  Hildreth 
allege  that  Thomas  Jefferson  owed  his  election  to 
Bayard. 

Evidence  of  this  Federalist's  purity  is  furnished 
in  a  letter  of  his  to  Hamilton  (1801),  in  which  he  ex 
presses  contempt  for  Burr  because  of  his  failure  to 
"  deceive  one  blockhead  and  buy  two  corruption- 
ists."  It  was  the  vote  of  Matthew  Lyon,  throwing 
Vermont  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  which  ended  the  long 
contest,  and  the  fact  that  Lyon  would  so  vote  was 
never  doubtful.  The  decisive  thing  to  do  was  to  get 
Lewis  R.  Morris,  his  colleague,  out  of  the  wray,  so 
that  Lyon  could  cast  the  whole  vote,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  either  Bayard  or  Hamilton  controlled 
Lewis  R.  Morris. 


A  new  era  had  now  opened.  Mr.  Jefferson  came 
into  his  high  office,  not  as  one  candidate  usually  fol 
lows  another,  but  as  a  reformer  chosen  to  make 
great  changes.  His  campaign  had  been  a  protest 

397 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

against  a  radically  opposing  creed,  a  revolt  against 
what  he  considered  a  subversion  of  great  prin 
ciples. 

Under  Washington  and  Adams,  monarchy  in  dis 
guise  had  entered  the  citadel.  It  must  be  driven 
out.  The  people  had  chosen  him  to  do  the  work.  It 
was  his  mission.  The  temple  must  be  purified  and 
rededicated  to  true  principles  upon  which  the  peo 
ple  had  intended  to  plant  themselves  when  they 
were  struggling  to  throw  off  the  English  yoke. 

Misled  by  the  baleful  influence  of  the  British 
faction,  Washington  and  Adams  had  gone  far 
astray  from  the  path,  had  grieved  the  spirit  of  De 
mocracy. 

It  had  been  his  to  sound  the  warning,  to  arouse 
the  people  to  lead  them  to  victory.  The  Govern 
ment  must  be  put  back  in  the  right  road.  The  old 
landmarks  must  be  recovered,  the  true  doctrine 
preached  and  practised.  In  this  spirit  of  consecra 
tion  to  a  high  mission,  Mr.  Jefferson  entered  upon 
his  duties. 

No  cream-colored  chariot  and  prancing  horses, 
with  outriders  and  livery,  bore  him  to  the  Capitol  to 
take  the  oath.  He  walked  from  his  boarding-house, 
attended  informally  by  a  few  friends,  and  read  in  a 
low  voice  the  beautiful  address  which  will  always 
be  to  good  government  what  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  to  religion. 

Great  changes  were  made  at  once  in  all  matters 
398 


JEFFERSON'S   ARRIVAL   AT   THE   WHITE   HOUSE. 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

of  form  and  ceremony.  Semi-royal  levees  were  dis 
continued.  Dinner-parties  given  by  the  President 
were  as  informal  as  those  of  any  private  gentleman. 
Congress  ceased  to  wait  upon  the  President  in  a 
body,  and  the  President  ceased  to  come  in  state  to 
Congress  to  deliver  his  "  king's  speech." 

When  Jefferson  had  occasion  to  go  to  the  Capitol 
upon  any  matter  of  business  he  rode  horseback, 
hitched  his  horse  to  a  peg  under  the  shed  which 
stood  near,  and  walked  in  as  any  plain  citizen 
would  have  done.  It  was  probably  this  habit 
(it  angered  and  disgusted  the  Federalists  so  much) 
which  gave  currency  to  the  rumor  that  he  rode  to 
his  inauguration  on  a  brood-mare,  followed  by  a 
suckling  colt.  The  writer  is  personally  acquainted 
with  good  citizens  who  seem  to  consider  the  legend 
ary  brood-mare  and  her  mythical  colt  as  a  part  of 
the  stage  property  of  modern  democracy. 

The  Government  had  only  recently  moved  into 
its  new  home  (1800),  and  Washington  city  was  at 
this  time  almost  a  wilderness.  The  White  House 
was  unfinished,  and  Jefferson  had  no  lady  of  his 
family  living  with  him;  consequently  it  became  the 
easier  for  him  to  indulge  his  preference  for  the  in 
formal  style,  both  in  matters  of  dress  and  of 
etiquette.  His  garb  was  frequently  a  mingling  of 
several  different  fashions,  none  of  them  elegant,  and 
his  slipshod  appearance  gave  pain  to  many  very 
worthy  people.  An  international  complication  was 

399 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

threatened  because  he  received  the  British  min 
ister  in  slippers  and  undress.  In  avoiding  one 
extreme,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  guilty  of  another.  He 
at  first  went  too  far  in  his  disregard  of  forms 
and  of  apparel.  He  adopted  no  laws  of  precedence, 
and  went  by  the  miller's  rule  of  "  First  come, 
first  served."  Almost  anybody  could  go  to  the 
mansion  at  pretty  much  any  time  and  be  graciously 
welcomed.  A  more  promiscuous  multitude  than 
that  which  often  paid  its  hearty  respects  to  the 
President  could  not  have  been  raked  together.  In 
theory,  the  White  House  belonged  to  all,  and  the 
practise,  for  once,  rubbed  noses  with  theory. 

Even  at  state  dinners  there  was  no  law  of  prece 
dence.  If  Jefferson  happened  to  be  seated  next  to 
Mrs.  Madison  when  dinner  was  announced  it  was 
to  Mrs.  Madison  that  he  would  offer  his  arm,  no 
matter  who  else  might  be  in  the  room.  If  the  wife 
of  the  British  minister  were  present,  her  husband 
had  to  be  alert  and  strenuous,  else  she  would  not 
find  one  of  the  best  seats  at  the  table.  Such  a  state 
of  affairs  was  horrible  to  the  British  minister,  and 
he  wrote  indignant  letters  of  complaint  to  his  Gov 
ernment. 

It  is  barely  possible  that  Mr.  Jefferson  bore  in 
mind  the  time  when  he  had  been  given  the  cold 
shoulder  in  London,  and  that  he  definitely  preferred 
Mrs.  Madison  to  Mrs.  Merry.  At  any  rate,  the 
British  minister  got  precisely  the  same  treatment 

400 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

as  others,  and  his  efforts  to  secure  better  terms 
failed. 

We  think  Mr.  Jefferson  made  a  mistake  in  all 
this,  for  he  wounded  pride,  hurt  feelings,  and  ac 
complished  no  good.  But  when  Mr.  William  Eleroy 
Curtis  finds  the  origin  of  the  War  of  1812  in  Mr. 
Jefferson's  behavior  to  the  British  minister,  he  be 
comes  a  source  of  amusement.  Two  Italian  states 
once  went  to  war  about  an  old  well-bucket,  and  ten 
thousand  lives  were  lost  in  the  debate;  a  coarse 
joke  flung  at  Henry  II  of  England  by  the  King 
of  France,  and  a  contemptuous  reference  by 
Frederick  of  Prussia  to  Madame  de  Pompadour, 
may  have  been  the  sparks  which  set  war-flames  to 
burning  in  those  countries,  as  we  have  all  heard; 
but  if  personalities  caused  the  War  of  1812  we 
should  go  further  back  than  the  era  of  Jeffer 
son's  old  slippers  and  corduroy  breeches.  We 
would  certainly  have  to  return  to  that  shameful 
scene  in  London  in  the  year  1786,  when  the  King 
of  England,  in  his  own  house,  and  before  all  his 
court,  wilfully  and  deliberately  snubbed  the  am 
bassador  of  the  United  States. 

But  all  this  is  idle.  Great  Britain  and  America 
did  not  go  to  war  on  account  of  King  George's  rude 
ness  nor  Jefferson's  heelless  slippers.  The  causes 
which  led  to  the  clash  lay  deeper.  These  instances 
of  bad  manners  in  King  George  and  President 
Jefferson  were  but  surface  symptoms. 
27  401 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Mr.  Jefferson  put  a  stop  to  the  prosecutions 
which  were  pending  under  the  sedition  law,  and  re 
leased  from  fines  and  imprisonment  those  who  had 
been  convicted. 

With  the  first  sloop  which  went  to  France  bear 
ing  despatches,  he  sent  to  Thomas  Paine,  who  was 
living  wretchedly  in  a  Paris  garret,  an  invitation  to 
come  home  on  this  national  vessel. 

To  Samuel  Adams,  dwelling  in  his  poor  hut  in 
Boston,  the  President  wrote  such  a  letter  as  an 
affectionate  disciple  might  pen  to  his  master. 

To  both  of  these  stanch  Democrats,  each  of 
whom  felt  that  he  had  been  neglected  and  ill- 
treated,  these  generous,  fraternal  letters  were  like 
balm  to  wounds.  It  was  a  beautiful  thing  to  do, 
and  there  was  no  political  motive  for  the  act.  It 
was  the  impulse  of  a  warm,  loyal  nature,  finding 
pleasure  in  doing  a  kindness. 

To  Dr.  Priestley,  the  great  Unitarian,  he  wrote 
in  strains  equally  cordial,  inviting  him  to  become  a 
guest  at  the  White  House. 


At  the  time  of  Jefferson's  election  Federalists 
filled  all  the  offices.  No  sweeping  removals  were 
made,  and  the  spoils  system  can  not  be  traced  back 
to  him;  but  Mr.  Jefferson  did  appoint  ^Republicans 
from  time  to  time — some  of  the  vacancies  having 
been  made  by  death  and  some  by  removal — until  at 

402 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

the  close  of  his  eight  years'  term  the  administra 
tion  had  become  fairly  representative  of  Repub 
lican  success.  In  fact,  as  Jefferson's  popularity 
grew  the  whole  nation  changed,  and  Federalism 
almost  vanished,  excepting  always  the  Federal 
judiciary.  There  its  waning  light  was  kept 
trimmed  and  burning  by  John  Marshall,  as  pure  a 
man,  able  a  judge,  and  rabid  a  partizan  as  ever 
lived. 

The  internal-revenue  system  was  abolished,  the 
army  treated  to  "  a  chaste  reduction,"  useless 
offices  lopped  away,  and  the  public  debt  steadily 
lowered.  By  cutting  down  salaries,  lessening  the 
number  of  office-holders,  and  exercising  economy 
throughout  the  service,  a  surplus  was  accumulated 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  internal  taxes  and  the 
direct  taxes  had  been  repealed.  The  national  debt 
was  being  paid  off  so  rapidly  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
looked  forward  to  the  time  in  the  near  future 
when  the  surplus  could  be  applied  to  the  opening  of 
canals,  the  building  of  roads,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  national  system  of  education.  This  surplus 
was  to  be  derived  always  from  import  duties  laid 
upon  luxuries. 

The  coast  survey  was  ordered,  the  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point  opened,  the  Cumberland 
Road  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Ohio  begun,  liberal 
naturalization  laws  were  enacted,  millions  of  acres 
of  land  fairly  obtained  from  the  Indians,  and  a  law 

403 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

passed  to  put  an  end  to  the  foreign  slave-trade,  on 
January  1,  1808. 

Foreign  ministers  were  withdrawn  from  Hol 
land,  Prussia,  and  other  nations  where  they  were 
useless,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  expressed  the  opinion 
that  a  consular  establishment  was  all  we  needed 
abroad.  What  real  benefit  this  republic  derives 
from  its  costly  and  elaborate  diplomatic  parapher 
nalia  it  would  puzzle  a  very  able  expert  to  explain. 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  make  a  strong  showing 
to  the  contrary. 

The  Federal  judiciary  was  Jefferson's  pet  bug 
bear,  and  he  did  all  he  could  to  republicanize  the 
courts.  He  removed  some  attorneys  and  marshals, 
but  with  the  judges  it  was  an  impossible  task.  Im 
peachments  were  tried,  but  that  cumbersome  ma 
chinery  wrould  not  work  satisfactorily. 

Judge  Pickering,  of  the  New  Hampshire  dis 
trict,  was  convicted  and  removed,  but  when  John 
Kandolph,  of  Roanoke,  arraigned  Judge  Chase,  of 
Maryland,  he  met  a  crushing  defeat.  Judge  Chase 
had  been  violently  partizan  on  the  bench,  and  had 
exhibited  every  trait  of  the  judicial  tyrant  during 
the  trials  of  persons  prosecuted  under  the  sedition 
acts.  But  when  the  Republicans  put  Chase  him 
self  in  the  dock,  it  was  soon  apparent  that  he  was 
too  strong  for  them.  He  was  well  connected,  he 
commanded  unanimous  party  support,  his  Revolu 
tionary  record  was  fine,  he  had  been  a  signer  of  the 

404 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

Declaration  of  Independence,  and  he  had  committed 
no  indictable  offense.  Luther  Martin  was  his  lead 
ing  lawyer,  and  in  the  hands  of  Luther  Martin,  the 
debate  being  on  questions  of  law,  Randolph  was  a 
lightweight,  indeed. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  countenanced,  and  indirectly 
encouraged,  the  impeachment  of  Chase,  but  he  had 
not  committed  himself.  Holding  serenely  aloof, 
he  viewed  Randolph's  discomfort  philosophically, 
though  he  was  chagrined  at  Chase's  escape. 

Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  was  not  a  patient  man — 
enduring  much  and  thinking  no  evil — and  he  did 
not  relish  what  appeared  to  be  the  task  of  raking 
chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  other  people,  especially 
when  the  fire  was  particularly  hot  and  the  chest 
nuts  refused  to  be  raked.  It  is  thought  that  the 
sudden  decline  in  his  admiration  for  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  dated  from  the  collapse  of  the  Chase  impeach 
ment. 

In  matters  of  legislative  reform  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  to  proceed  slowly.  He  treated  as  null  the  ap 
pointments  Mr.  Adams  had  made  at  the  close  of  his 
term,  and  as  soon  as  possible  prevailed  upon  Con 
gress  to  repeal  the  act  creating  the  circuit  courts. 

The  Federalists  very  strongly  resisted  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  in  his  assault  upon  the  Federal  judiciary. 
They  realized  the  advantage  they  held  there  quite 
as  fully  as  the  Republicans  did,  and  they  contested 
every  inch  of  ground.  By  the  time  the  Circuit 

405 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Court  Act  had  been  repealed  and  the  impeachment 
of  Judge  Chase  had  failed,  Mr.  Jefferson  appears  to 
have  been  convinced  that  he  could  do  nothing  more 
without  running  the  risk  of  splitting  up  his  own 
party.  To  himself  and  to  the  Republicans  gen 
erally  it  afterward  became  a  source  of  regret  that 
nothing  more  was  done  to  put  limits  on  the  power 
of  Congress  and  of  the  judiciary.  The  troubles 
with  England,  the  disunion  tendencies  in  the  East 
ern  States,  the  quasi-Federalism  of  Mr.  Madison, 
the  continual  alarmist  outcries  of  political  enemies 
— all  acted  as  brakes  to  the  wheel  of  Jeffersonian 
purpose. 

To  dream  in  the  studio  is  one  thing,  to  conduct 
an  administration  is  another.  It  is  this  difference 
between  theory  and  practise  which  makes  Jeffer 
son  seem  inconsistent. 

From  the  time  that  he  first  realized  the  unique 
position  of  the  Federal  judiciary  in  our  system, 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  its  bitter  enemy.  It  violated  all 
his  ideas  of  Democracy.  Its  judges  were  not 
amenable  to  popular  control.  There  was  no  rota 
tion  in  office,  no  short  terms,  no  frequent  appeals 
to  the  people.  A  body  so  independent  of  the 
popular  will,  and  clothed  with  the  tremendous 
power  of  setting  aside  the  statutes  of  every  State 
and  of  the  United  States,  was  by  the  very  law  of 
its  nature  antagonistic  to  the  principle  upon 
which  democratic  government  is  founded.  The  will 

406 


JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT 

of  the  people,  the  preference  of  the  majority,  was 
sovereign,  according  to  Republican  theory;  but 
here  was  a  sovereignty  more  permanent  than 
Presidents  and  Senates,  more  untrammeled  than 
the  Executive  or  the  Legislature,  and  its  final 
word  was  law  supreme,  overriding  cabinets, 
lawmakers,  and  people.  By  its  very  constitution, 
such  a  tribunal  would  be  out  of  touch  with  the 
masses,  would  feel  no  popular  impulse,  would  in 
evitably  tend  to  become  aristocratic,  if  not  auto 
cratic,  in  method  and  in  purpose.  By  the  elemental 
selfishness  of  human  nature,  it  would  eternally  seek 
to  broaden  the  bounds  of  its  empire.  Jefferson 
dreaded  it,  prophesied  against  it,  bewailed  its  irre 
sistible  power. 

Reading  his  gloomy  forecasts,  one  almost  be 
lieves  he  anticipated  government  by  injunction 
and  the  advent  of  the  deputy  marshal.  But  we 
doubt  if  even  his  wildest  fears  could  have  pictured 
a  situation  in  which  Congress  is  not  allowed  to  put 
the  income  tax  upon  a  millionaire,  and  when  the 
sympathizer  with  labor  is  enjoined  from  persuasion 
and  peaceful  aid. 


407 


CHAPTER    XLII 

THE    LOUISIANA    PURCHASE 

ONE  of  the  eternally  convincing  proofs  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  range  of  vision  as  a  statesman  is  the 
importance  which  he  attached  to  the  West  while  it 
was  still  a  wilderness.  He  was  quick  to  encourage 
George  Rogers  Clarke  when  he  offered  to  invade 
the  vast  Illinois  country.  When  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  he  pushed  the  frontier  of  his  State  to  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi,  and  held  it  there  with  a 
fort.  While  minister  to  France  he  had  urged  Led- 
yard  to  go  across  Europe  to  Kamchatka,  pass  the 
strait,  and  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  explore  the 
country  back  to  the  settlements  in  the  East. 

When  Spain  had  demanded  full  control  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  John  Jay  had  proposed  to  yield 
to  the  Spanish  demands  for  the  closure  of  the  river, 
Jefferson  and  Madison  both  realized  what  Jay  and 
Washington  did  not — the  vast  importance  of  the 
Mississippi  to  the  American  people. 

Prof.  John  Fiske,  in  his  Critical  Period  of  Ameri 
can  History,  holds  up  George  McDuffie,  "  the 
very  able  Senator  from  South  Carolina,"  to  the 
scorn  of  posterity  because  Mr.  McDuffie  failed  to 

408 


THE    LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

foresee  the  value  of  the  unpeopled  wilderness  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  the  republic.  This  was  very 
short-sighted  in  Mr.  McDuffie,  and  serves  to  lower 
him  as  a  statesman.  But  South  Carolina  was  not 
the  only  State  which  had  a  "  very  able  Senator." 
Massachusetts  had  one — Daniel  Webster — a  "  very 
able  Senator,"  indeed. 

The  value  of  the  Northwestern  lands  was  passed 
upon  by  him  as  well  as  by  McDuffie,  and  Prof.  John 
Fiske,  of  New  England,  fails  to  cite  the  opinion  of 
Mr.  Webster. 

The  very  able  Senator  from  Massachusetts  ex 
pressed  himself  in  these  words: 

"  What  do  we  want  with  this  vast  worthless 
area?  This  region  of  savages  and  wild  beasts,  of 
deserts  of  shifting  sands  and  whirlwinds  of  dust,  of 
cactus  and  prairie-dogs?  To  what  use  could  we 
ever  hope  to  put  these  great  deserts,  or  those  end 
less  mountain  ranges,  impenetrable  and  covered  to 
their  base  with  eternal  snow?  What  can  we  ever 
hope  to  do  with  the  western  coast,  a  coast  of  three 
thousand  miles,  rock-bound,  cheerless,  uninviting, 
and  not  a  harbor  on  it?  What  use  have  we  for  this 
country?  " 

Thus  spoke  Daniel  Webster,  "  the  very  able 
Senator "  from  Massachusetts.  All  of  which 
merely  goes  to  show  that  neither  George  McDuffie 
nor  Daniel  Webster  had  the  far-seeing  statesman 
ship  which  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Napoleon  Bona- 

409 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

parte  possessed.  For  each  of  these  marvelous  men 
fully  realized  the  vast  possibilities  of  the  Western 
wilderness,  just  as  the  much-reviled  John  Law  had 
foreseen  it.  One  of  the  first  fruits  of  victory  which 
Napoleon  snatched  at  was  Louisiana.  The  bestial, 
impotent  Bourbons  had  lost  it;  he,  the  upstart  Cor- 
sican,  would  have  it  back.  And  in  1800  he  got  it — 
the  imperial  domain  out  of  which  has  been  carved 
some  fourteen  of  the  best  States  and  Territories  of 
the  Union.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  cast  longing  eyes 
upon  this  glorious  region,  and  had  dreamed  of  the 
day  when  it  would  be  ours.  To  every  movement  of 
the  Spaniards  on  the  Mississippi  he  was  acutely 
sensitive.  When  they  withdrew  our  right  of  de 
posit  at  New  Orleans  he  was  prompt  in  having  it 
restored — doing  it  by  patient  diplomacy,  blood- 
lessly,  when  the  Federalists  in  Congress  were  stri 
ving  to  force  him  into  war. 

On  the  instant  that  it  became  known  in  this 
country  that  Napoleon  had  secured  the  huge  prize 
and  meant  to  develop  a  colonial  empire  between 
the  great  river  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  peace  talk  gave  way  to  sterner  language.  He 
said  as  plainly  as  words  could  make  it  that  France 
would  not  be  allowed  to  establish  a  colonial  em 
pire  here,  thus  throwing  into  the  face  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  the  first  declaration  of  something  which 
resembled  the  "  Monroe  doctrine." 

But  peace  was  always  better  than  war,  and  Mr. 
410 


THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

Jefferson,  while  making  threats,  offered  to  trade. 
Let  France  sell  us  New  Orleans  and  part  of  Florida. 

That  Napoleon  was  swerved  one  hair's  breadth 
from  his  course  by  anything  Mr.  Jefferson  said  or 
did  no  student  can  allege.  Nor  is  it  true  that  the 
revolt  of  the  negroes  in  San  Domingo  had  anything 
to  do  with  it.  Had  not  England  broken  the  peace 
of  Amiens,  Napoleon  would  have  made  the  attempt 
to  hold  Louisiana  in  spite  of  Jefferson,  in  spite  of 
Livingston  and  Monroe,  and  in  spite  of  the  negroes 
of  San  Domingo. 

The  expedition  which  General  Victor  was  to 
have  led  to  Louisiana  was  already  prepared,  and 
sailing-orders  had  been  issued,  when  it  suddenly 
appeared  that  there  would  be  another  struggle  to 
the  death  with  Great  Britain.  This,  and  this  only, 
changed  Napoleon's  purpose.  In  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  he  did  change,  just  as  he  afterward  changed 
his  plan  against  England  to  the  plan  against  Aus 
tria — which  carried  him  to  Austerlitz  and  made 
William  Pitt  roll  up  the  map  of  the  world  and  turn 
his  tired  face  to  the  wall. 

Livingston  had  made  no  headway  in  his  efforts 
to  buy  a  portion  of  the  Louisiana  country,  nor  would 
James  Monroe,  whom  Jefferson  hurried  across  with 
secret  instructions,  have  had  any  better  success. 
But  Napoleon's  circumstances  changed,  his  mind 
changed,  and  from  sullen  "  Nay  "  he  shifted  his  tone 
to  eager  "  Yea."  That  is  all  there  is  of  it.  He 

411 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

said  to  his  minister:  "I  know  the  value  of  what 
I  sell.  I  regret  its  loss  deeply.  But  I  am  powerless 
to  hold  it.  England  will  seize  it.  Offer  it  to  the 
United  States — sell  the  whole  of  Louisiana.  Do 
this  at  once!" 

Absolutely  he  flung  to  us,  almost  in  spite  of  our 
selves,  what  we  had  not  asked  for,  and  what  he 
would  have  kept  but  for  the  certainty  that  Great 
Britain  would  get  it.  The  only  questions  Living 
ston  and  Monroe  had  to  settle  were  (1)  whether  they 
should  take  the  responsibility  in  buying  the  whole 
country,  and  (2)  what  price  they  would  pay.  They 
decided  wisely  to  accept  the  entire  property,  and 
they  agreed  to  pay  what  amounted  to  $15,000,000. 

Had  Jefferson  not  been  prompt,  had  our  minis 
ters  not  been  men  of  nerve,  had  Napoleon  not  been 
capable  of  rapid  decision,  Louisiana  would  doubt 
less  have  been  the  first  prize  of  the  British  fleet  in 
the  war  which  broke  out  twelve  days  later.  Had 
England  got  her  clutches  upon  that  immense 
region,  who  can  say  that  we  ever  could  have  loosed 
them?  The  power  which  has  held  Canada  on  the 
north  might  have  made  good  against  us  the  line  of 
the  Mississippi. 

To  Jefferson's  initiative  and  farsightedness  we 
owe  it  that  we  secured  without  bloodshed,  for  a 
trifling  sum  of  money,  a  territory  which  doubled  our 
republic,  assured  its  expansion  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  to  the  Pacific,  and  thus  lifted  us,  by  a 

412 


THE   LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

stroke  of  genius,  into  a  world  power  of  the  first 
class. 

Hamilton  had  dreamed  of  something  akin  to 
this  to  be  achieved  by  a  doubtful  bloody  war  with 
Spain  and  France,  in  which  we  should  have  en 
tangled  ourselves  in  a  dangerous  alliance  with 
Great  Britain.  His  Miranda  scheme,  looked  at  in 
the  most  favorable  light,  amounted  to  that — a 
bloody,  doubtful  war,  and  a  dangerous,  entangling 
alliance.  Once  over  here  with  her  fleets  and 
armies,  Great  Britain  might  not  have  been  willing 
to  go  when  we  said  go. 

Jefferson,  pursuing  a  plan  different  in  spirit  and 
in  principle,  secured  all  the  results  which  Hamil 
ton's  most  brilliant  success  could  have  won,  with 
out  the  risk,  the  bloodshed,  and  the  entangling 
British  alliance. 

In  selling  Louisiana  Napoleon  did  not  neglect 
the  people.  He  provided  for  them,  using  ex 
pressions  which  did  credit  to  his  heart  as  well  as 
his  head. 

If  Lucien  and  Joseph  Bonaparte  ever  had  the 
bath-tub  squabble  with  their  mighty  brother,  which 
Henry  Adams  and  James  K.  Hosmer  dwell  on  so 
lovingly,  it  but  increases  one's  contempt  for  the 
brothers.  Napoleon  had  adopted  the  only  course  a 
statesman  could  adopt.  To  give  Louisiana  back  to 
Spain  would  have  been  a  folly  which  even  so  stupid 
a  man  as  Joseph  Bonaparte  might  have  understood. 

413 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

A  barren  debate  has  arisen  over  the  respective 
merits  of  Livingston  and  Monroe  in  the  Louisiana 
purchase.  As  a  Southern  man,  intimate  with  Jef 
ferson  and  Madison,  Monroe  may  have  better  appre 
ciated  the  grandeur  of  Jefferson's  aims.  Livingston 
was  certainly  nearer  to  the  ideas  of  John  Jay,  for 
he  wrote  Madison: 

"  I  would  rather  have  confined  our  views  to 
smaller  objects,  and  I  think  that  if  we  succeed  it 
would  be  good  policy  to  exchange  the  west  bank  (of 
the  Mississippi)  with  Spain  for  the  Floridas,  reserv 
ing  New  Orleans." 

This  is  what  Livingston  wrote  at  the  time.  Not 
what  he  said  to  Talleyrand,  or  Barb£  Marbois,  or 
Napoleon,  but  his  maturely  considered  opinion 
given  to  his  own  Government. 

Think  of  it!  He  was  willing  to  swap  the  West 
ern  Continent  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  for 
the  island  of  New  Orleans  and  the  Floridas!  There 
is  no  room  left  for  doubt.  Livingston  must  be 
classed  not  with  Jefferson,  but  with  George  Mc- 
Dunie  and  Daniel  Webster,  each  of  whom  was  a 
"  very  able  Senator." 

Mr.  Livingston  afterward  wrote  in  a  very  differ 
ent  strain.  But  that  is  another  matter.  Most  of  us 
can  see  what  will  happen  after  it  has  happened. 

In  buying  Louisiana  Mr.  Jefferson  made  no  hol 
low  pretense  that  the  Constitution  gave  him 
authority.  He  frankly  admitted  that  it  was  out- 

414 


THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

side  the  Constitution,  and  needed  the  sanction  of 
the  people.  He  acted  upon  the  principle  that  it 
was  a  case  which  had  not  been  foreseen,  had  not 
been  provided  for,  but  which  was  of  such  vital  and 
certain  benefit  to  the  Union  that  it  must  be  done, 
law  or  no  law.  An  overwhelming  national  neces 
sity  breaks  treaties  and  written  compacts — a  most 
dangerous  doctrine,  but  one  which  is  recognized. 

The  American  Peace  Commissioners  acted  by 
virtue  of  this  unwritten  law  in  making  a  treaty  with 
England  separate  from  France. 

The  delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  1787  obeyed  the  same  rule  when  they  disregarded 
their  instructions  and  made  a  new  Constitution. 

More  recently,  Jay  acted  in  that  spirit  in  making 
his  treaty  with  Great  Britain. 

A  dangerous  principle,  most  assuredly,  and  one 
whose  only  justification  is  the  existence  of  irresis 
tible  national  interest,  from  which  national  consent 
will  be  presumed. 

Jefferson  acted  upon  this  principle,  and  the  na 
tion  ratified  what  he  had  done.  Congress  and  the 
people  were  not  only  satisfied,  they  were  delighted. 
Jefferson's  praises  resounded  throughout  the  land. 
In  New  England  alone  was  disapproval  heard. 

As  early  as  1786  leaders  in  Massachusetts  de 
clared  that  if  Jay's  attempts  to  close  the  Missis 
sippi  were  not  successful  in  Congress  it  was  time 
for  the  New  England  States  to  withdraw  from  the 

415 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Union    and    to    form    a    confederation    by    them 
selves. 

In  1792  and  in  1794  similar  talk  was  rife;  in 
1796  Lieutenant-Governor  Wolcott,  of  Connecticut, 
said  that  if  Jefferson  were  elected  President  he 
would  favor  a  separation  of  the  Northern  from  the 
Southern  States. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  intensified  this  sec 
tional  jealousy,  the  New  England  Federalists  fore 
seeing  the  growth  of  a  Western  world  which  would 
be  injurious  to  Eastern  commerce.  They  declared 
that  the  Eastern  States  would  be  compelled  to 
establish  an  Eastern  Empire.  This  disunion  senti 
ment  continued  to  grow  until  Josiah  Quincy  de 
clared  in  Congress  that  if  the  bill  for  the  admission 
of  Louisiana  passed  the  bond  of  the  Union  would  be 
dissolved,  and  that  as  it  would  be  the  right  of  all 
the  States  to  secede,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  some — 
"  amicably  if  they  can,  violently  if  they  must." 

It  is  only  when  we  contrast  the  wisdom  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  with  such  shortsighted  men  as  those  who 
threatened  to  break  up  the  Union  because  he  had 
gained  Louisiana  for  it,  that  we  begin  to  realize  the 
difference  between  a  statesman  and  a  humdrum 
politician. 

Our  new  empire  was  promptly  reduced  to  pos 
session,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  set  on  foot  an  exploring 
expedition  to  open  up  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
world  the  mysterious  regions  of  the  far  West. 

416 


THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

Starting  out  from  St.  Louis,  a  small  band  of 
Americans  under  the  two  Virginians,  Lewis  and 
Clarke,  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  made 
their  way  to  where  the  Columbia  River  enters  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  At  a  cost  of  $2,500,  Jefferson, 
through  the  work  of  these  explorers,  not  only  ac 
quired  knowledge  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  but 
laid  the  foundation  to  our  claim  to  the  Oregon 
country,  whose  value  Mr.  Webster  was  so  far  from 
understanding. 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  his  Winning  of  the  West, 
grudges  Mr.  Jefferson  any  credit  for  the  Louisiana 
purchase,  being  far  less  generous  to  the  Southern 
statesman  than  was  another  great  Northern  writer, 
James  G.  Elaine. 

In  his  Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  Mr.  Elaine 
bears  frank  and  full  testimony  to  Jefferson,  and  he 
clearly  demonstrates  how  much  our  republic 
gained  by  Jefferson's  initiative  and  promptitude. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  contends  that  the  American  peo 
ple  would  have  got  the  territory  anyhow.  It  was 
only  a  question  of  time.  How  could  Mr.  Roosevelt 
know  that?  We  have  wanted  Canada  bad  enough, 
several  times,  but  we  have  never  got  it.  Even  as 
these  lines  are  being  written  (May,  1903)  American 
citizens  by  the  thousand  are  pouring  into  Canadian 
territory  from  our  Northwest,  but  England  still 
holds  the  land  and  our  Americans  will  become  sub 
jects  of  Great  Britain. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Emigration  cares  less  about  forms  of  govern 
ment  and  national  names  than  it  does  about  condi 
tions  of  soil,  climate,  wages,  cost  of  living,  richness 
of  mines,  and  a  freedom  of  opportunity. 

So  as  to  Louisiana.  Americans  would  have 
streamed  across  the  Mississippi  to  settle  the  land 
beyond,  but  had  England  been  its  sovereign  the 
emigrant  might  have  had  as  little  thought  of  throw 
ing  off  the  British  dominion  as  he  now  has  when  he 
settles  in  Canada. 

Had  Mr.  Jefferson  been  "  timid,  weak,  and  vacil 
lating,"  had  he  waited  just  a  few  days  longer,  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  would  have  caught  him 
with  the  Louisiana  business  unsettled,  and  Great 
Britain  would  have  seized  it  is  French  territory. 
He  is  a  prophet,  indeed,  who  can  predict  that  we 
"  would  have  got  Louisiana  anyhow  "  had  England 
been  allowed  to  get  her  strong  hands  on  it. 


During  former  administrations  the  Mohamme 
dan  powers  of  the  Mediterranean  had  remained  our 
"  great  and  good  friends,"  at  a  cost  of  $2,000,000. 
Jefferson  determined  to  put  an  end  to  tribute- 
paying.  Recurring  to  his  old  Paris  plans,  he  sent 
war-vessels  to  the  Mediterranean  and  began  to  per 
suade  the  infidels  with  guns.  Partly  by  hard  fight 
ing,  and  partly  by  negotiation  and  one  final  ran 
som  of  $60,000,  Jefferson  wrung  an  honorable  peace 

418 


THE    LOUISIANA   PURCHASE 

from  the  Mohammedans  and  they  troubled  him  no 
more. 

In  the  year  1800,  John  Adams  being  President, 
Commodore  Bainbridge  was  compelled  by  the  Dey 
of  Algiers  to  carry  Algerine  despatches  to  the  Sul 
tan  at  Constantinople,  and  the  American  man-of- 
war,  the  George  Washington,  sailed  through  the 
Dardanelles  with  the  "  pirate "  flag  at  the  mast 
head. 

Adams  did  nothing  about  it;  Jefferson  did.  He 
made  it  impossible  for  that  kind  of  degradation  to 
befall  us  again. 


419 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OP  ROANOKE 

THE  leader  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration  on 
the  floor  of  the  House  in  Congress  was  one  of  the 
most  vividly  picturesque  figures  that  has  ever  ap 
peared  in  our  political  history.  John  Randolph,  of 
Roanoke,  was  born  in  1773,  and  among  his  ancestors 
he  counted  not  only  the  Scotch  Earls  of  Murray,  but 
Pocahontas,  the  daughter  of  a  king.  Whether  a 
lineage  of  this  sort  justifies  inordinate  pride  is  a 
fair  question  for  debate.  That  the  Scotch  Earls  of 
Murray  at  some  time  or  other  were  cattle  thieves, 
just  as  most  of  the  other  feudal  lords  of  Normandy, 
France,  Germany,  and  England  were  plunderers  by 
sea  or  land,  need  not  be  seriously  doubted;  yet,  as 
earls  go,  they  stood  high.  Pocahontas,  too,  was 
only  the  daughter  of  a  naked  Indian,  who  cooked 
his  fish  with  the  scales  on  and  the  entrails  undis 
turbed  within,1  while  the  little  princess,  in  all 
the  charms  of  unclothed  nature,  would  play  with 
the  Jamestown  boys,  "  turning  a  somerset "  equal 
to  any  of  them.  Yet,  after  all,  she  was  a  princess; 
and  just  as  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  England  walked 

1  Bruce,  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

420 


JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

behind  the  African  chief  because  he  wa-s  a  king,  so 
the  descendants  of  Pocahontas  were  proud  of  their 
descent  from  the  alleged  savior  of  Smith  because 
she  was  a  princess.  Besides  family  pride,  John  Ran 
dolph  inherited  vast  family  estates — lands,  houses, 
negroes,  horses,  cattle — but  no  cash  to  speak  of, 
and  the  inevitable  British  debt.  Randolph  com 
plained,  early  and  feelingly,  of  the  condition  in 
which  he  found  his  estate,  and  refers  to  "  the  scuffle 
with  negroes  and  overseers  for  something  like  a 
pittance  of  rent  and  profit  upon  my  land  and 
stock." 

A  Charleston  bookseller,  who  saw  Randolph  in 
1796,  describes  him  as  "  a  tall,  gawky,  flaxen-haired 
stripling,  with  a  complexion  of  good  parchment 
color,  beardless  chin,  and  as  much  assumed  self- 
confidence  as  any  two-footed  animal  I  ever  saw." 
Later  in  life  Randolph  looked  like  an  old  shriveld 
woman.  His  bones  had  no  flesh,  his  voice  was  a 
feminine  shriek,  his  face  was  literally  covered  with 
countless  wrinkles,  and  his  color  was  that  of  old, 
yellow  parchment.  Beard  he  never  had;  and  he  was 
a  bundle  of  nerves,  whose  capacity  for  suffering  was 
pathetic.  Things  which  other  men  of  less  sensitive 
organization  would  never  notice  tortured  him  to 
distraction.  He  was  quick  to  love  and  to  hate. 
There  was  a  quality  which  we  call  "  womanish  "  in 
both  his  loves  and  his  hates. 

He  was  the  slave  of  impulse  and  temper,  irri- 
421 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

table  to  the  last  degree,  incapable  of  sustained,  sys 
tematic  labor. 

Imperfectly  educated,  his  genius  undisciplined, 
his  faculties  untrained,  he  was  nevertheless  a  most 
effective  speaker.  On  the  hustings  he  was  superb, 
a  master  of  a  crowd.  When  Eobert  Toombs  was  at 
the  University  of  Virginia,  he  rode  sixty  miles  to 
hear  John  Randolph  make  one  of  his  last  speeches, 
and  Mr.  Toombs  always  referred  to  it  as  one  of  the 
most  powerful  of  speeches. 

The  self-confidence  to  which  the  Charleston 
book-dealer  referred  as  assumed  was  not  assumed. 
Randolph's  confidence  in  himself  was  real,  and  was 
unlimited.  At  a  public  dinner  in  1795  he  dared  to 
propose  as  a  toast,  "  George  Washington — may  he 
be  damned! " 

When  this  sentiment  met  disapproval  the  bold 
youth  added,  "  If  he  signs  Jay's  treaty." 

His  very  first  dash  into  politics  was  a  race  for 
Congress,  and  the  first  opponent  whom  he  met  in 
public  debate  was  Patrick  Henry.  No  small  game 
for  "Jack  Randle."  He  struck  at  the  antlered 
stag.  He  was  only  twenty-six  w^hen  he  thus  threw 
himself  against  the  Washington-Henry-Marshall  in 
fluence  in  Virginia,  and  he  was  victorious.  Such  a 
triumph  was  not  calculated  to  lessen  his  self- 
esteem. 

It  must  have  been  a  sight  to  see  Randolph  dis 
mount  from  his  splendid  saddle-horse  at  the  door, 

422 


JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

and  go  stalking  into  the  House  of  Representatives 
with  a  cap  on  his  head,  a  whip  in  his  hand,  top- 
boots  on  his  feet,  and  a  pair  of  pointer  dogs  at  his 
heels.  It  made  no  difference  to  him  whether  busi 
ness  had  begun  or  not;  he  would  loudly  salute  his 
friends,  and,  after  drawing  off  his  gloves,  fire  away 
at  whatever  subject  happened  to  be  before  the 
House.  If  some  member  whom  he  disliked  was  on 
the  floor  he  would,  as  apt  as  not,  turn  round,  and 
noisily  walk  out. 

Brilliant,  eccentric,  brave,  honest,  ready  to 
tongue-lash  anybody  who  offended  him,  cursed  with 
a  restless  disposition  which  craved  excitement,  and 
a  morbid  temper  which  made  it  next  to  impossible 
for  him  to  work  in  harmony  with  others,  he  tor 
mented  himself,  quarreled  with  relatives,  cast  off 
friends,  broke  with  political  associates,  and  became 
almost  an  Ishmaelite.  Yet  a  few  of  the  best  men 
loved  him,  one  of  the  finest  constituencies  in  Amer 
ica  stood  true  to  him,  and  a  very  considerable  per 
centage  of  Southern  people  believed  that  he  was  the 
most  clear-sighted  and  consistent  statesman  the 
South  ever  had. 

Between  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John  Randolph 
there  could  never  have  been  much  in  common. 

They  were  relatives,  but  not  so  close  as  to  be  in 
timate.  They  both  loved  books,  but  in  a  different 
way.  John  Randolph's  thirty-five  hundred  volumes 
were  the  companions  of  lonely  hours,  to  be  read 

423 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

whenever  the  whim  seized  him,  and  dropped  when 
he  was  tired. 

He  was  no  student,  and  while  his  mind  was 
richly  stored  with  the  treasures  of  literature,  he 
was  complete  master  of  no  subject  whatever. 

Irregular,  insubordinate,  impatient  of  rule  or  re 
straint,  such  a  methodist  as  Jefferson  was  certain, 
sooner  or  later,  to  provoke  his  captain's  temper  and 
reckless  tongue. 

But  at  first,  Randolph  as  House  leader,  and 
Jefferson  as  President,  got  on  well  though.  One 
had  to  be  extremely  anxious  for  a  row,  indeed,  to 
pick  a  fuss  with  so  mild,  so  patient,  so  conciliatory, 
so  adroit  a  politician  as  Jefferson. 

The  Republican  party  was  young,  it  was  enjoy 
ing  the  first  great  victory  it  had  won,  its  chief  was 
still  its  prophet,  nothing  had  yet  occurred  to  cause 
divisions,  and  therefore  during  the  first  year  or  so 
of  the  Jefferson  administration  John  Randolph, 
Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  and 
House  leader  for  the  Executive,  was  the  most 
powerful  man  in  Congress. 

He  was  no  leader.  He  was  a  boss.  He  drove  his 
men  by  the  force  of  his  temper  and  the  fury  of  his 
tongue.  His  pointed  finger  was  a  lance;  his  wit  a 
sword  of  fire.  Still,  the  party  being  obedient,  the 
President  supreme,  and  Randolph  orthodox,  he  was 
effective.  He  put  administrative  measures  through 
under  whip  and  spur.  So  long  as  he  spoke  in  the 

424 


JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

name  of  the  party  he  was  irresistible.  Meii  might 
curse  him  in  their  hearts,  but  they  dared  not  vote 
against  him.  But  troubles  arose.  There  was  the 
impeachment  of  Judge  Chase,  in  which  the  Presi 
dent  had  thrown  out  no  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
prosecution.  Randolph  had  caught  a  hard  fall,  had 
been  sorely  bruised,  and  no  presidential  balm  was 
forthcoming.  Then  there  was  the  Yazoo  fraud 
business,  wherein  the  State  of  Georgia  had  lost, 
through  a  bribed  Legislature,  40,000,000  acres  of 
land;  and  wherein  James  Madison,  Matthew  Lyon, 
and  other  prominent  Republicans,  had  indorsed  a 
proposition  to  let  the  land  companies  have  5,000,000 
acres,  in  compromise,  as  compensation  to  alleged 
innocent  purchasers.  Randolph  could  see  no  inno 
cence  in  any  purchaser  of  this  Yazoo  land,  and  his 
w^rath  flamed  fiercely  against  compromise  and  com 
promisers.  He  denounced  Lyon,  and  Lyon  de 
nounced  him;  he  denounced  Madison,  and  the  Sec 
retary  of  State  defied  him.  He  denounced  Gideon 
Granger,  the  Cabinet  officer,  who  had  taken  a  fee 
from  the  land  companies,  and  was  helping  to  push 
the  compromise  through. 

In  this  struggle  we  must  admire  Randolph  and 
sympathize  with  him.  He  had  been  in  Georgia  dur 
ing  the  Yazoo  agitation,  and  knew  all  about  it.  He 
knew  that  a  greedy  corporation  had  corrupted  the 
Legislature  and  perpetrated  a  tremendous  piece  of 
robbery.  He  may  have  been  present  at  Louisville, 

425 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Ga.,  when  General  James  Jackson,  in  the  presence 
of  the  assembled  Legislature,  all  the  State  officials, 
and  a  multitude  of  private  citizens,  "  brought  down 
fire  from  heaven,"  through  a  sunglass,  and  burnt  the 
detested  Yazoo  Act.  At  any  rate,  he  felt  that  the 
fraud  upon  the  State  of  Georgia  had  been  so  noto 
rious,  and  had  been  so  promptly  and  publicly  ex 
posed  and  repudiated,  that  there  could  be  no  ques 
tion  of  "  innocent  purchaser  "  concerning  this  land 
— no  matter  what  some  Federal  judge  might  say. 

The  heat,  the  violence,  the  persistence  which 
Randolph  manifested  in  his  fight  against  the  Ya 
zoo  corruptionists  are  to  his  credit.  As  an  honest 
man  and  fearless  Congressman  he  staked  his  po 
litical  life  on  the  issue — combating  Madison,  Jeffer 
son,  Lyon,  Granger,  and  everybody  else  who  refused 
to  help  him  punish  the  rascality  of  the  Yazoo 
gang. 

There  were  two  sides,  as  there  almost  always 
are.  Jefferson  had  prevailed  upon  the  State  of 
Georgia  to  cede  the  disputed  Yazoo  grant  to  the 
General  Government,  with  the  understanding  that 
Georgia  should  be  paid  $1,250,000  out  of  the  pro-, 
ceeds  of  the  first  sales  of  public  lands.  To  avoid  all 
trouble  and  complications,  the  administration  was 
in  favor  of  compromising  with  the  so-called  "  inno 
cent  purchasers "  by  yielding  to  them  5,000,000 
acres  of  the  land.  But  the  taking  of  a  fee  by  the 
Postmaster-General  from  the  claimants  to  lobby 

426 


JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

their  bill  through  cast  the  shadow  of  a  scandal  upon 
the  whole  administration,  and  one  can  not  escape 
the  suspicion  that  the  Yazoo  grant,  conceived 
in  fraud,  remained  a  source  of  corruption  to  the 
last. 

But  the  actual  breach  between  Randolph  and 
Jefferson  occurred  on  the  proposition  to  acquire 
Florida.  The  President  was  proceeding  about  the 
business  with  that  diplomacy  which  in  the  Louisi 
ana  case  had  been  successful.  He  was  making 
public  threats  to  fight  Spain,  while  by  secret  mes 
sage  he  was  asking  Congress  for  money  to  be  used 
in  negotiation.  To  the  public  there  was  a  revela 
tion,  to  the  initiated  a  secret.  This  principle,  or 
want  of  principle  (as  the  case  may  be),  had  worked 
well  enough  for  Louisiana,  and  Randolph  had  been 
the  presidential  agent.  But  now  the  floor  leader  re 
volted.  In  his  own  mind  he  drew  a  distinction  be 
tween  the  two  cases,  and,  to  the  amazement  of  Con 
gress,  he  began  an  opposition.  Soon  the  terrors  of 
his  tongue  were  loosed  upon  the  President.  At  first 
there  was  a  flurry  in  administration  circles — almost 
a  panic — but  it  soon  passed.  Jefferson's  confidence 
did  not  forsake  him,  his  following  in  Congress  stood 
the  strain;  and  when  Randolph  set  up  his  independ 
ent  standard  the  merest  handful  went  with  him. 

For  many  and  many  a  year  Randolph  remained 
in  the  public  service,  most  of  the  time  in  the 
House,  one  term  in  the  Senate,  one  mission  to  Rus- 

427 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

sia,  always  conspicuous,  always  courageous,  often 
right,  generally  in  the  minority,  but  nothing  more 
than  a  brilliant  free-lance,  without  decisive  in 
fluence. 

When  one  reads  his  letters  to  friends  whom  he 
really  honored  and  his  descriptions  of  his  travels 
in  Europe,  one  regrets  that  the  literature  of  his 
country  lost  a  mind  so  rich  and  so  brilliant. 

As  a  conversationalist,  when  familiarly  spend 
ing  an  evening  within  a  small  congenial  circle  he 
was  at  his  best;  and  none  excelled  him  then. 

New  Englanders  were  not,  as  a  rule,  feverishly 
fond  of  John  Randolph,  but  notice  the  impression 
he  made  upon  a  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  Elijah 
Mills:  "  He  is  really  a  most  singular  and  interesting 
man.  He  dined  with  us  yesterday.  He  was  dressed 
in  a  rough,  coarse,  short  hunting-coat,  with  small 
clothes  and  boots,  and  over  his  boots  a  pair  of 
coarse  cotton  leggings,  tied  with  strings  around  his 
legs.  He  engrossed  almost  the  whole  conversation, 
and  was  exceedingly  amusing  as  well  as  eloquent 
and  instructive." 


With  the  sole  exception  of  Randolph,  Jefferson 
had  no  serious  troubles  with  his  lieutenants.  His 
Cabinet  was  singularly  harmonious.  James  Madi 
son,  Secretary  of  State;  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury;  Henry  Dearborn,  Secretary  of 

428 


JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

War;  Gideon  Granger,  Postmaster-General;  Levi 
Lincoln,  Attorney-General;  Robert  Smith,  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy,  were  all  excellent  officers  and 
loyal  to  the  chief. 

Congress  was  probably  never  handled  so  adroit 
ly  and  successfully  as  it  was  by  Mr.  Jefferson. 


429 


CHAPTER    XLIV 

BURR,   ADAMS,    HAMILTON 

AARON  BURR  quietly  took  his  place  as  Vice- 
President,  and  made  a  model  officer.  Senators  who 
had  sat  under  John  Adams  must  have  felt  refreshed 
by  the  change. 

When  General  Washington  became  President, 
and  Mr.  Adams  Vice-President,  all  was  confusion, 
and  modes  of  doing  things  had  to  be  adopted  before 
things  themselves  could  be  done.  Here  was  infinite 
field  for  discussion  and  for  display  of  knowledge  of 
the  ways  of  other  peoples. 

Whether  the  President  and  Vice-President  were 
like  Roman  consuls,  or  Spartan  kings,  or  Cartha 
ginian  suffetes,  Mr.  Adams  did  not  know  for  cer 
tain;  but  he  was  anxious  to  find  out,  and  more  than 
willing  to  talk  about  it  from  the  chair.  "  I  am  pos 
sessed  of  two  separate  powers;  the  one  in  esse,  the 
other  in  posse.  I  am  Vice-President.  In  this  I  am 
nothing,  but  may  be  everything.  But  I  am  also 
President  of  the  Senate;  what  shall  I  do  when 
President  Washington  comes?  I  can  not  be  Presi 
dent  then.  No,  gentlemen,  I  can  not.  I  wish  you 
gentlemen  to  think  what  I  shall  be." 

With  a  confusion  remotely  resembling  Ham- 
430 


BURR,   ADAMS,   HAMILTON 

let's,  Mr.  Adams  made  earnest  efforts  to  understand 
himself,  locate  himself,  and  adjust  himself.  In 
nearly  every  debate  he  took  an  active  part.  Sena 
tors  who  in  the  progress  of  their  remarks  went 
astray  on  matters  of  fact  or  argument  he  set  right 
from  the  chair.  Frequently  he  would  address  the 
Senate  for  nearly  an  hour  at  a  time;  and  that  day 
which  passed  without  several  speeches  of  varying 
lengths  from  Vice-President  Adams  was  excep 
tional.  A  great  stickler  for  forms,  he  was  constant 
ly  telling  the  Senate  how  certain  things  were  done 
in  the  House  of  Lords  in  England;  and  on  the  first 
address  of  Washington  to  Congress  his  clerk  in 
dorsed,  with  Adams's  approval,  the  royal  phrase 
"  his  gracious  speech." 

When  it  gradually  dawned  upon  Mr.  Adams  that 
he  and  Washington  were  not  to  be  treated  as 
Roman  consuls,  Spartan  kings,  or  Carthaginian 
suffetes  his  disgust  grew  apace — so  much  so  that 
when  Senator  Maclay  and  others  stoutly  contended 
for  the  simple  manners  of  democracy,  Adams  de 
clared  that  had  he  known  the  American  people 
would  come  to  such  a  pass  he  would  never  have 
taken  up  arms  against  Great  Britain. 

Fussy,  consequential,  pompous,  garrulous,  with 
out  dignity  of  person  or  of  manner,  his  face  often 
expanded  in  a  vacant  laugh,  John  Adams  was  not 
the  man  to  be  imposing  or  impressive  as  a  presiding 
officer  over  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

431 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Jefferson  had,  of  course,  adopted  a  different 
standard  when  he  came  to  preside  over  the  Senate; 
and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  consuls,  the 
kings,  or  the  suffetes.  Eomans,  Grecians,  and  Car 
thaginians  were  suffered  to  rest  in  peace.  The 
Vice-President  no  longer  acted  as  schoolmaster  for 
Senators.  Under  Jefferson's  firm,  gentle  control, 
the  Senate  began  to  assume  the  character  befitting 
the  most  responsible  body  in  the  New  World. 

Aaron  Burr  followed  the  example  of  Jefferson; 
and  his  conduct  as  President  of  the  Senate  com 
pelled  unstinted  praise  from  friends  and  foes  alike. 
He  was  a  model  of  decorum,  was  rigidly  impartial, 
and  was  conspicuously  capable.  When  his  term  ex 
pired,  he  delivered  a  brief  farewell  address,  which 
created  a  profound  impression,  and  which  even  in 
the  imperfect  report  handed  down  to  us  raises  the 
speaker  in  the  estimation  of  all  who  will  read  it. 

The  received  opinion  about  Burr  is  that  he  was 
a  political  adventurer,  without  care  or  thought  for 
the  law,  the  country,  and  for  the  human  race.  In 
that  connection,  one  paragraph  in  his  short  speech 
is  very  striking.  "This  House  is  a  sanctuary;  a 
citadel  of  law,  and  of  liberty;  and  it  is  here — it  is 
here,  in  this  exalted  refuge — here,  if  anywhere,  that 
resistance  will  be  made  to  the  storms  of  political 
frenzy  and  the  silent  arts  of  corruption.  If  the  Con 
stitution  be  destined  to  perish  by  the  sacrilegious 
hands  of  the  demagogue  or  the  usurper,  which  God 

432 


BURR,   ADAMS,   HAMILTON 

avert,  its  expiring  agonies  will  be  witnessed  on 
this  floor." 

Whatever  else  it  may  be,  this  is  not  the  language 
nor  the  conception  of  a  mere  shallow  trifler.  Just 
as  Patrick  Henry  had  foreseen  the  centralizing 
principles  in  the  new  Constitution,  Aaron  Burr  real 
ized  the  predominant  power  of  the  United  States 
Senate.  In  each  case  the  prediction  was  that  of  the 
statesman,  for  the  facts  were  not  then  so  apparent. 
"  Storms  of  political  frenzy  "  was  the  one  danger, 
"  the  silent  arts  of  corruption "  was  the  other. 
Anybody  who  now  looks  in  upon  the  United  States 
Senate  and  mentally  extracts  therefrom  the  repre 
sentatives  and  beneficiaries  of  "  the  silent  arts  of 
corruption,"  will  be  in  considerable  doubt  as  to 
whether  he  has  left  a  quorum  to  do  business. 

Dwarfing  the  House,  overshadowing  the  Presi 
dent,  the  Senate  governs  the  republic;  and  "the 
silent  arts  of  corruption  "  govern  the  Senate. 


With  the  election  of  Jefferson  the  career  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  ended.  This  was  not  foreseen 
by  him,  nor  was  it  realized  by  him  until  the  master 
ful  management  which  the  Virginian  displayed  in 
his  first  administration  had  borne  its  fruit  in  his 
second,  and  almost  unanimous,  election.  Not  till 
then  did  Hamilton  give  up  the  ghost  politically.  So 
late  as  January,  1804,  he  seems  to  have  nursed  the 
29  433 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

hope  that  Jefferson  would  do  something  very  des 
perate,  revolutionary,  and  anarchistic — something 
which  would  justify  the  Federalist  predictions  and 
rekindle  the  Federalist  hopes.  On  Wednesday, 
January  18, 1804,  we  find  the  three  eminent  patriots 
of  New  York — Rufus  King,  Gouverneur  Morris,  and 
Alexander  Hamilton — dining  together  at  King's. 
These  notable  three  were  "  alarmed  at  the  conduct 
of  our  rulers,  and  think  the  Constitution  is  about  to 
be  overturned." 

Hamilton  and  King  "  apprehend  a  bloody  anar 
chy."  Morris  thinks  that  the  Constitution  has  al 
ready  been  overturned.  Anarchy  is  about  to  ensue 
in  which  property  will  be  sacrificed.  The  only  dif 
ference  between  those  three  New  York  patriots  is 
that  King  and  Hamilton  believe  there  will  be  anar 
chy  accompanied  by  bloodshed,  while  Morris  thinks 
that  the  ruthless  Jeffersonians  will  be  content  with 
the  confiscation  of  houses,  lands,  mules,  horses, 
cows,  etc. 

Indeed,  Hamilton  was  at  sea — adrift  on  the 
great  ocean  without  compass  or  rudder.  All  his 
fine  plans  and  schemes  had  failed.  His  party  was 
dead,  and  about  to  be  buried.  He  had  lost  the  great 
Washington,  who  had  been  his  shield.  His  own  per 
sonal  and  political  unpopularity  now  rested  upon 
him  with  stifling  weight.  He  was  bankrupt  in  his 
finances.  His  tortuous  intrigues  with  men  and  par 
ties  had  raised  up  against  him  an  army  of  venomous 

434 


BURR,   ADAMS,   HAMILTON 

enemies.  Jefferson  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him — neither  wanting  his  support  nor  fearing  his 
opposition.  His  advice  was  not  sought  on  any 
earthly  subject,  and  his  newspaper  criticisms  were 
treated  with  the  contempt  they  deserved.  Passed 
forever  were  the  days  when  he  could  dictate  the 
policies  of  Cabinets  and  control  the  votes  of  Con 
gress.  The  only  possible  hope  for  Hamilton  was  that 
the  country  might  become  involved  in  war.  In  that 
event,  his  courage  and  ability  would  assuredly  have 
guaranteed  him  a  brilliant  career,  provided  a 
friendly  President  was  ready  to  give  him  high  ap 
pointment.  In  civil  life  he  had  no  outlook  what 
ever.  A  comfortable  lawT  practise,  a  dreary  strug 
gle  with  debt,  and  a  declining  capacity  for  labor 
was  his  prospect. 

Hamilton  had  matured  early — wonderfully  so — 
but  his  limit  of  expansion  had  soon  been  reached; 
and  in  1804  he  was  certainly  not  a  growing  man. 
He  had  paid  the  penalty  of  precocity.  The  decay 
had  set  in  at  an  age  when  other  men,  not  so  rapid 
in  early  growth,  were  still  expanding  in  knowledge 
and  wisdom.  In  politics  Hamilton  and  Burr  had 
reached  the  point  where  each  could  knife  the  other 
in  New  York  without  being  able  to  do  more.  Burr 
could  get  no  office — Hamilton  barred  the  way. 
Hamilton  could  get  none — Burr  and  his  own  un 
popularity  blocked  the  path. 

For  many  years  Hamilton  had  pursued  Burr,  in 
435 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

letters  and  private  conversation,  with  every  sort  of 
accusation.  Burr's  private  remarks  were  used 
against  him;  idle  reports  were  repeated  and  exag 
gerated;  and  the  most  injurious  suspicions  became 
facts  to  the  jealous,  embittered  Hamilton.  During 
all  these  years  the  two  men  wrere  on  friendly  terms, 
dining  at  each  other's  house,  their  families  min 
gling  freely  in  social  intercourse.  In  fact,  Burr 
does  not  seem  to  have  known  how  rabid  was  Ham 
ilton's  hatred,  nor  how  offensive  his  language. 
When  Burr  did  find  it  out,  when  he  did  realize  how 
inveterate  had  been  Hamilton's  hostility,  he 
resolutely  determined  to  call  him  to  account. 

With  Burr's  first  note  in  that  fatal  correspond 
ence  Hamilton  seemed  to  have  become  suddenly 
conscious  of  his  great  imprudence  and  his  great 
danger.  In  many  of  his  letters  against  his  rival, 
previous  to  that  last  correspondence — letters  which 
are  half  frantic  with  jealousy,  malice,  and  treacher 
ous  eagerness  to  deal  a  stealthy  stab — Hamilton 
leaves  upon  the  modern  reader  the  impression  that 
he  was  afraid  of  Burr.  At  all  events,  the  corre 
spondence  leading  up  to  the  duel  does  not  increase 
one's  respect  for  Hamilton.  As  John  Randolph 
said,  the  letters  of  Hamilton  show  a  consciousness 
of  inferiority  to  his  antagonist. 

"  On  one  side  there  is  labored  obscurity,  much 
equivocation,  and  many  attempts  at  evasion,  not 
unmixed  with  a  little  blustering;  on  the  other  an 

436 


BURR,   ADAMS,   HAMILTON 

unshaken  adherence  to  his  object  and  an  undevi- 
ating  pursuit  of  it,  not  to  be  eluded  or  baffled.  It 
reminded  me  of  a  sinking  fox  pressed  by  a  vigor 
ous  old  hound,  where  no  shift  is  permitted  to 
avail  him." 

When  Gouverneur  Morris  heard  the  result  of 
the  duel,  he  hastened  to  the  beside  of  his  dying 
friend.  Hamilton  was  speechless.  Morris  sat  by 
him  till  he  expired.  It  was  a  tragic  scene — the  dead 
husband  and  father,  the  frantic  wife  and  children; 
the  grief-stricken,  sympathizing  friends.  Morris 
was  asked  to  pronounce  the  funeral  oration.  This 
request  caused  some  embarrassment  to  Morris,  and 
his  diary  reflects  it.  He  says  that  the  subject  is 
difficult.  "  The  first  point  in  his  biography  is  that 
he  was  a  stranger  of  illegitimate  birth;  some  mode 
must  be  contrived  to  pass  this  over  handsomely. 
He  was  indiscreet,  vain,  and  opinionated;  these 
things  must  be  told  or  the  character  will  be  incom 
plete.  He  was  in  principle  opposed  to  republican 
and  attached  to  monarchical  government.  His 
share  in  forming  our  Constitution  must  be  men 
tioned,  and  his  unfavorable  opinion  can  not  there 
fore  be  concealed. 

"  The  most  important  part  of  his  life  was  his  ad 
ministration  of  the  finances.  The  system  he  pro 
posed  was  radically  wrong  in  one  respect;  more 
over,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  some  just  and  much 
unjust  criticism. 

437 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

"  I  can  neither  commit  myself  to  a  full  approval, 
nor  is  it  prudent  to  censure  others.  All  this  must, 
somehow  or  other,  be  reconciled.  He  was  in  prin 
ciple  opposed  to  dueling,  yet  he  fell  in  a  duel." 

In  other  entries  in  his  diary,  made  a  few  days 
later,  Morris  states  that  Hamilton  "has  died  in 
solvent,"  owing  fifty  to  sixty  thousand  dollars,  and 
leaving  property  which  would  probably  sell  for 
forty  thousand. 

The  wife  and  seven  children  "  will  be  left  desti 
tute;  and  charitable  friends  take  advantage  of  the 
profound  public  sympathy  to  set  on  foot  a  sub 
scription." 

Gouverneur  Morris  was  a  personal  and  politi 
cal  friend  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  The  estimate  of 
the  dead  man,  which  was  written  when  Morris  was 
under  the  softening  spell  of  circumstances  elo 
quently  pleading  for  mercy  to  Hamilton,  is  cer 
tainly  in  striking  contrast  with  the  rhapsodies  of 
Daniel  Webster  and  Prof.  John  Fiske. 

If  ever  there  was  a  man  who  knew  Hamilton 
thoroughly  it  was  Gouverneur  Morris.  And  no  man 
was  better  qualified  to  weigh  the  true  worth  of 
Hamilton;  for  Morris  was  himself  a  practical,  suc 
cessful  financier,  a  statesman  of  rare  intelligence, 
a  student  of  men  and  measures,  capable  of  forming 
a  cool,  discriminating,  accurate  judgment  of  his 
fellow  man. 


438 


CHAPTER    XLV 

BRITISH   AGGRESSIONS. — EMBARGO 

To  avoid  another  such  complication  as  had 
threatened  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  people  at  the 
time  of  Jefferson's  first  election,  a  constitutional 
amendment,  providing  that  the  President  and 
Vice-President  should  be  separately  voted  for,  was 
adopted  during  his  first  term.  Under  the  operation 
of  the  new  law  he  received  at  the  election  of  1804 
162  electoral  votes,  while  the  opposite  ticket  got 
but  14. 

In  the  mad  struggle  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  neutral  commerce  was  swept  off  the  sea. 
Between  British  orders  in  Council  and  French  de 
crees,  no  safety  ground  was  left — the  ships  that 
missed  the  English  whirlpool  foundered  on  the 
French  rocks.  All  efforts  to  make  terms  with  the 
belligerents  were  vain.  England  contemptuously 
spurned  our  overtures,  and  France  could  do  nothing 
unless  England  would  alter  her  rules.  Outrages 
without  number  were  committed  upon  our  mer 
chant  vessels  by  both  England  and  France.  An 
English  war-ship,  the  Leopard,  attacked  one  of  our 
battle-ships,  the  Chesapeake,  catching  it  unpre- 

439 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

pared,  and  forced  it  to  haul  down  its  flag,  after  rid 
dling  the  ship  and  littering  its  decks  with  dead  and 
wounded. 

British  officers  then  went  on  board  the  Chesa 
peake,  had  the  vessel  searched,  and  took  away  three 
American-born  negroes  who  were  not  British  sub 
jects,  but  who  had  served  on,  and  deserted  from,  a 
British  man-of-war.1  In  truth,  the  insolence  of 
our  mother  country  toward  us  during  the  period 
when  we  could  not  help  ourselves  was  something 
almost  incredible. 

It  did  not  commence  with  Jefferson's  adminis 
tration,  as  Henry  Adams's  histories  would  imply. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  a  continuation  of  the  strife 
begun  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  It  never  had  en 
tirely  ceased.  It  continued  under  Washington, 
and  it  made  itself  felt  in  the  time  of  Adams.  The 
Jay  treaty  did  not  put  an  end  to  it  entirely. 

When  the  Jay  treaty  expired,  Mr.  Jefferson  did 
his  utmost  to  secure  better  terms,  but  was  unable 
to  do  so.  After  ever  so  many  snubs,  delays,  and  dis 
couragements,  James  Monroe  and  William  Pinck- 
ney  signed  a  treaty  which  violated  their  instruc 
tions.  It  was  so  far  short  of  what  was  needed  and 
what  was  fair  and  just,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  rejected 
it  without  even  taking  the  advice  of  the  Senate. 

A  study  of  the  relations  between  the  United 

1  They  found,  also,  a  deserter  named  Ratcliffe.     They  hung  him  at 
Halifax. 

440 


BRITISH  AGGRESSIONS.     EMBARGO 

States  and  Great  Britain  from  the  conclusion  of  the 
Peace  of  Paris,  in  1783,  down  to  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  in  1815,  is  dismal  reading.  It  is  a  long, 
long  chapter  of  insolence,  oppression,  flagrant  out 
rage  of  the  stronger  nation  toward  the  weaker. 

Who  inflamed  the  Indians  during  Washington's 
administration,  threw  the  Northwest  into  panic, 
lit  the  sky  with  the  flames  of  burning  homes,  speed 
ing  the  work  of  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife,  and 
laying  the  train  of  events  which  led  to  the  massacre 
of  the  army  of  St.  Clair?  Great  Britain  did  it. 
Who  kidnaped  thousands  of  our  citizens — snatch 
ing  them  from  wife,  child,  home,  and  freedom— 
and  chained  them  to  a  detested  service,  scourged 
them  with  cruel  lash,  compelled  them  to  fight  their 
own  countrymen,  or  hung  them  without  pity  at  the 
yardarm?  Great  Britain  did  it.  Who  insulted  our 
ministers,  contemptuously  refused  to  make  amends 
for  admitted  wrongs,  rebuffed  every  advance  we 
made  toward  friendship,  fomented  sedition  here 
among  our  own  people,  corresponding  with  traitors, 
encouraging  treason,  and  plotting  with  them  a  re 
bellion  against  the  Government?  Great  Britain 
did  it. 

The  record  is  there  for  all  to  see. 

What  was  Mr.  Jefferson  to  do?  Neither  of  his 
predecessors  had  provided  a  standing  army.  The 
people  were  intensely  jealous  of  such  a  force. 
Public  sentiment  did  not  yet  demand  a  war.  New 

441 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

England,  especially,  preferred  for  things  to  remain 
as  they  were. 

In  spite  of  orders  in  Council,  French  decrees, 
and  wholesale  seizures  there  were  men  engaged  in 
commerce  who  preferred  to  continue  to  take  the 
risks. 

But,  after  all,  governments  are  responsible  in 
national  affairs;  not  individuals.  Mr.  Jefferson 
could  not  afford  to  have  the  flag  insulted  on  every 
sea,  our  ships  condemned,  our  citizens  carried  away 
into  slavery. 

The  Government  must  do  something;  and  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  Congress  laid  an  embargo 
upon  foreign  commerce.  That  is,  no  American 
ship  could  clear  for  a  foreign  port,  and  no  foreign 
ships  could  enter  ours. 

The  whole  country  suffered  under  this  embargo. 
The  shipowners  of  the  maritime  States  and  the 
planters  of  the  South  were  equally  hard  hit;  but 
the  manufacturers  of  New  England  coined  money. 
For  the  time,  they  enjoyed  a  complete  monopoly  of 
the  domestic  market — the  true  aim  of  all  tariffs. 

While  other  sections  were  groaning  under  the 
embargo — produce  unsold,  debts  unpaid,  and  no 
money  in  circulation — New  England  had  more  sur 
plus  cash  than  could  readily  find  profitable  invest 
ment.  Nevertheless,  her  people  put  up  a  clamor 
ous  opposition  to  the  law,  and  illicit  trade  was 
brisk,  open,  and  defiant. 

442 


BRITISH  AGGRESSIONS.     EMBARGO 

Congress  passed  a  Force  Bill,  to  enable  the 
President  to  execute  the  law.  This  aggravated  New 
England's  discontent. 

The  Massachusetts  Legislature  declared  the  en 
forcing  act  to  be  unconstitutional  and  not  legally 
binding.  Courts  and  juries  refused  to  convict 
violators  of  the  law.  Connecticut  likewise  nullified 
it  by  legislative  enactment,  and  by  the  refusal  of 
her  Governor  to  honor  the  President's  requisition 
for  militia  to  enforce  the  law.  Beset  by  foreign 
foes  on  the  one  hand  and  by  domestic  treason  and 
rebellion  on  the  other,  Mr.  Jefferson's  position  was 
deplorable.  While  he  thoroughly  believed  in  the 
embargo,  and  thought  that  persistence  in  that 
policy  would  force  England  to  terms  (as  Madison 
always  believed),  the  force  of  the  measure  was  lost 
when  New  England  preached  and  practised  nulli 
fication. 

His  friend  and  House  leader,  Nicholas,  of  Vir 
ginia,  introduced  resolutions  (January  25,  1809)  to 
repeal  the  embargo  on  June  1st. 

The  date  finally  fixed  was  March  4,  1809.  Non- 
intercourse  with  France  and  England  was  substi 
tuted  for  the  embargo,  the  repealing  act  merely 
serving  to  unfetter  American  trade  as  to  other 
nations. 

The  student  can,  if  he  will,  see  clearly  enough, 
all  along  here,  the  evil  effects  of  the  original  mis 
take  made  by  Washington's  administration.  Had 

443 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

we  frankly  continued  the  French  alliance,  as  we 
had  done  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  results  would  have 
continued  to  be  satisfactory.  Combined,  we  were 
stronger  than  Great  Britain;  separate,  she  could 
overcome  each.  The  Hamilton  policy  played  into 
England's  hands  by  giving  her  the  advantage  of 
combating  her  enemies  one  at  a  time.  How  any 
honest  student  can  fail  to  see  this  without  putting 
out  his  eyes,  we  can  not  understand.  Bold,  open 
alliance  with  France  gave  the  weak  colonies  victory 
over  Great  Britain;  bold,  loyal  observance  of  our 
treaty  with  her  would  have  continued  to  maintain 
a  superiority  over  her.  Had  we  kept  faith,  had  we 
kept  the  flags  of  the  two  republics  intertwined,  the 
tree  which  had  borne  such  good  fruit  would  have 
continued  to  bear  good  fruit. 

France  had  asked  us  for  nothing  that  we  could 
not  safely  have  granted.  Genet's  privateers  were 
not  hurting  us.  Genet's  proposition  to  have 
George  Rogers  Clarke  call  for  volunteers  and  march 
against  Spanish  New  Orleans  was  not  likely  to 
damage  us.  Genet's  prayer  that  we  pay  France 
what  we  owed  her  was  not  such  a  very  extravagant 
prayer — especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
willing  to  take  it  "  in  trade."  Jefferson  thought 
that  the  request  should  be  granted,  and  so  wrote. 
But  most  unfortunately  the  spell  of  Hamilton  was 
upon  the  Cabinet,  and  the  British  faction  carried 

444 


BRITISH  AGGRESSIONS.     EMBARGO 

the  day.  They  kept  us  from  getting  the  immense 
benefit  of  the  sudden  strength  displayed  by  the 
French  Republic.  They  kept  us  from  deriving  any 
benefit  from  the  victories  of  Napoleon.  And  they 
could  not  prevent  England  from  searching  our  ves 
sels,  seizing  our  sailors,  and  capturing  our  mer 
chantmen  during  the  whole  humiliating  period. 
And  then  when  France  had  been  exhausted  and  lay 
bleeding  at  every  pore,  England  pounced  upon  the 
silly  nation  which  had  not  recognized  its  oppor 
tunity;  and  she  had  the  extreme  good  luck  to  fight 
us  when  France  could  not  have  helped  had  she  been 
inclined. 

Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt  speaks  of  the  "  infamous 
conduct "  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  in  not  prepar 
ing  this  republic  for  war.  "  Infamous  "  is  a  strong 
word  even  when  thrown  at  notorious  knaves: 
when  applied  to  such  men  as  Jefferson  and  Madison 
it  has  no  more  meaning  than  Daniel  O'ConnelFs  ref 
erence  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  as  "  a  stunted 
corporal,"  or  the  British  epithet  "  Corsican  ogre  " 
when  applied  to  Napoleon.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was 
young  when  he  denounced  Jefferson  and  Madison 
as  "infamous";  he  would  not  repeat  that  state 
ment  now,  we  may  be  sure. 

But  when  even  a  younger  man,  it  might  have  oc 
curred  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  that  all  wars  have  their  re 
mote  causes,  sometimes  hidden  sources;  and  he 
might  have  inquired  "  What  was  the  true  origin  of 

445 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

our  War  of  1812?  "  And  bad  he  given  the  subject 
the  same  fearless,  intelligent,  and  independent 
study  that  he  gave  to  the  conquest  of  the  South 
west,  he  would  have  put  his  unerring  finger  on  the 
broken  French  treaty  of  1778,  and  would  have 
bravely  told  the  world:  "  This  dishonored  treaty, 
this  breach  of  national  faith,  this  selfish  ingrati 
tude  to  the  people  who  came  to  us  in  the  hour  of  our 
need — this,  this  was  the  origin  of  our  woes." 

In  short,  the  fight  was  already  begun,  and  we 
had  a  friend  whose  strength  and  fidelity  had  borne 
the  stern  test  of  the  battle-field.  We  threw  away 
that  friend,  and  during  the  strife,  which  had  never 
really  ceased,  and  which  was  kept  up  till  the  South 
ern  volunteers  annihilated  the  British  at  New 
Orleans,  we  got  buffets  from  both  France  and  Great 
Britain,  when  we  could  have  continued  the  alliance 
with  France  and  compelled  Great  Britain  to  keep 
the  peace. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Jefferson  made  con 
siderable  preparations  for  war.  The  regular  army 
was  increased  by  6,000  men;  militia  to  the  number 
of  100,000,  to  serve  six  months,  was  authorized; 
and  $5,000,000  spent  upon  war  equipment  and  coast 
defenses. 

As  events  showed  afterward,  we  did  not  lack 
for  troops.  What  we  needed  was  strong,  loyal 
public  sentiment  supporting  the  administration — 
and  generals  who  would  fight. 

446 


CHAPTER    XLVI 
BURR'S  TRIAL. — JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

AFTER  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  Vice-Presi- 
dent  Burr  was  adrift.  A  combination  of  the  Clin 
tons  and  Livingstons  in  New  York,  aided  by  Ham 
ilton,  had  defeated  him  in  the  race  for  Governor; 
and  after  he  had  settled  old  scores  by  calling  Ham 
ilton  out  and  killing  him  in  the  duel,  a  sudden  wave 
of  indignation  had  driven  Burr  from  the  State.  In 
dictments  for  murder  having  been  found  against 
him;  he  could  not  return.  Jefferson  had  taken  sides 
with  the  Livingston-Clinton  faction,  as  any  prac 
tical  politician  would  have  done,  and  Burr  soon 
realized  that  he  had  no  footing  anywhere.  The 
President  refused  to  give  him  a  foreign  appoint 
ment,  or  to  otherwise  aid  him,  and  he  became  des 
perate. 

What  his  famous  plot  was  in  reality  can  not  be 
known  with  certainty.  Late  in  his  life  he  declared 
that  he  had  intended  to  do  what  Sam  Houston  and 
others  did  in  Texas.  Andrew  Jackson  certainly 
understood  that  some  such  design  against  Spain 
was  in  contemplation,  else  he  would  never  have 
gone  so  far  with  Burr  as  to  call  out  his  Tennessee 
militia. 

447 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

The  purchase  by  Burr  of  the  large  Spanish  grant 
points  in  the  same  direction,  as  did  the  talk  at  Blen- 
nerhasett's  Island,  where  Mexican  empire  was  the 
burden  of  the  song.  But  the  overtures  which  Burr 
made  to  Great  Britain  first,  and  then  to  Spain,  and 
then  to  France,  disclosed  a  purpose  to  sever  the 
Union.  It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  he  would 
have  stopped  at  nothing  in  the  effort  to  retrieve  his 
fortunes. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  secret  plotting  and 
planning,  cipher  despatches,  vague  soundings  of 
this  man  and  that,  purchase  of  supplies,  collection 
of  boats,  employment  of  men,  journeying  up  and 
down  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi. 

Had  Burr  concentrated  his  mind  upon  the  effort 
to  wrest  territory  from  Spain,  talked  that  and 
nothing  but  that,  frittering  away  no  unnecessary 
time  in  social  festivities,  he  might  have  done  some 
thing  great  in  the  Southwest.  Such  a  design  was 
familiar  in  those  regions,  and  was  popular.  George 
Rogers  Clarke  had  meditated  such  a  scheme,  and 
had  found  no  difficulty  in  gathering  up  volunteers. 
Others  had  brooded  over  similar  plans,  and  the  sen 
timent  favoring  them  had  only  to  organize  to  be 
come  formidable. 

It  was  Burr's  misfortune,  however,  to  put  faith 
in  General  James  Wilkinson,  as  better  men  than 
Burr  had  done. 

Historians  of  our  republic  differ  in  many  things, 
448 


ANDREW  JACKSOK 


BURR'S  TRIAL.    JEFFERSON  S  RECORD 

but  as  to  this  man  Wilkinson  there  is  a  concurrence 
of  opinion  that  gives  the  wearied  reader  of  contra 
dictions  a  positive  recreation.  With  one  voice,  and 
by  a  rising  vote,  scribes  of  every  persuasion  de 
nounce  Wilkinson.  Venal,  cowardly,  treacherous, 
a  bribe-taker  from  Spain,  a  traitor  to  the  United 
States,  faithless  in  all  relations,  public  and  private, 
he  stands  on  the  pillory  side  by  side  with  Benedict 
Arnold.  Burr  trusted  this  man  as  Washington  had 
trusted  him.  It  was  to  Wilkinson  that  the  cipher 
despatches  were  sent.  It  was  Wilkinson  who  had 
it  in  his  power  to  "give  away"  the  whole  con 
spiracy. 

And  he  gave  it  away. 

This  main  prop  failing,  the  rickety  fabric  fell. 
Wilkinson  having  betrayed  his  chief,  the  timorous 
associates  everywhere  rushed  to  cover. 

If  ever  it  had  been  Burr's  intention  to  make  any 
armed  resistance  to  the  authorities  of  the  United 
States,  he  was  in  no  condition  to  do  so  when  the 
crisis  came.  At  the  first  notice  that  presidential 
proclamations  and  legal  warrants  were  out  against 
Burr,  his  supporters  fell  away  in  the  haste  of  patri 
otic  self-preservation. 

Burr  disguised  himself  and  tried  to  escape  to 
the  Gulf,  but  was  recognized  and  arrested.1  Pend 
ing  Burr's  preparation  and  previous  to  Wilkinson's 

1  As  there  has  been  much  dispute  as  to  the  details  and  exact  place 
of  Burr's  arrest,  the  author  quotes  here  an  extract  from  a  private  letter, 
written  him  while  this  work  was  in  press,  by  Mr.  Dunbar  Hunt,  now  of 

80  449 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

disclosures  attempts  had  been  made  to  check  the 
enterprise  with  criminal  prosecutions,  but  these  had 
signally  failed.  Nothing  criminal  could  be  shown. 
Now,  however,  it  was  thought  that  high  treason 
had  been  committed  and  would  be  easy  to  prove. 
Hence,  as  Burr  was  taken  to  Richmond  for  trial,  he 
was  already  regarded  by  most  people  as  a  criminal 
caught  red-handed. 

By  virtue  of  his  office,  Thomas  Jefferson  be 
came  virtually  Burr's  prosecutor.  John  Marshall 
was  presiding  judge — very  fortunately  for  the 
prisoner. 

Federalism,  in  forgetfulness  of  Hamilton,  ral 
lied  to  the  defense  of  Burr;  and  his  trial  became 
almost  an  attempt  to  convict  Thomas  Jefferson  of 
high  crimes  and  misdemeanors. 

The  tone  in  which  Marshall  referred  to  the 
President,  the  outrageous  style  in  which  Burr's 
lawyers  arraigned  him,  the  contemptuous  attitude 

New  York.  He  (Burr)  was  captured  on  the  banks  of  Coles  Creek,  Jefferson 
County,  Mississippi,  a  few  miles  from  its  mouth,  where  it  empties  into 
the  Mississippi  River.  After  his  capture  he  was  taken  to  Calviton,  the 
residence  of  Mr.  Thomas  Calvit,  near  by,  and  when  introduced  to  Mrs. 
Calvit,  the  old  lady  in  her  dignified  manner  remarked  that  she  "would 
be  proud  of  the  honor  of  the  acquaintance  of  Colonel  Burr  were  he  a 
friend  to  his  country." 

The  small  frame  house  in  which  this  meeting  occurred  was  removed 
some  years  ago  to  another  part  of  the  same  plantation  and  is  now  oc 
cupied  by  one  of  the  negro  tenants. 

I  am  a  native  Mississippian,  having  lived  there  most  of  my  life  and 
only  recently  moved  here. 

The  foregoing  statement  I  get  from  the  lips  of  my  father  and 
mother.  My  father's  name  was  David  Hunt,  whose  first  wife  was  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  Thomas  Calvit,  and  our  home  was  at  "Woodlawn," 
adjoining  the  "  Calviton  "  plantation. 

450 


BURR'S  TRIAL.    JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

of  Burr  himself,  made  this  celebrated  trial  a  poi 
soned  thorn  in  Jefferson's  side.  Neither  could  it 
have  been  soothing  to  the  President  to  observe  how 
comfortably  a  suite  of  rooms  had  been  fitted  up  for 
the  distinguished  prisoner,  and  how  deferentially 
he  was  served  by  his  custodians.  The  bouquets  of 
choice  flowers  which  were  showered  upon  Burr 
could  not  have  smelled  sweet  to  Jefferson.  Those 
delicate  notes  that  were  sent  in  by  ladies  fair,  those 
honeyed  messages,  those  oranges,  pineapples,  apri 
cots,  and  raspberries — they  certainly  could  not  have 
tasted  right  to  Jefferson.  The  semiroyal  levees 
which  Washington  held  as  President  of  the  re 
public  had  not  pleased  the  plain  Thomas  Jefferson; 
but  how  about  those  levees  which  were  being  held 
in  Eichmond,  where  Virginians  crowded  on  each 
other's  heels  to  pay  court  to  high  treason?  Wash 
ington's  banquets  may  have  been  too  stately  in 
their  etiquette;  but  how  about  this  Richmond  ban 
quet,  where  John  Marshall,  the  judge,  and  Luther 
Martin,  the  prisoner's  lawyer,  sat  down  at  a  bril 
liant  feast  with  the  prisoner  on  trial? 

Jefferson's  wrath  became  a  consuming  flame. 
Almost  beside  himself,  he  railed  at  Burr,  at  Mar 
shall,  at  Martin,  jogging  the  elbow  of  the  district 
attorney  at  every  step,  supplying  him  with  copious 
suggestions,  and  exerting  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
have  the  evidence  ready.  Burr's  beautiful  and  bril 
liant  daughter  came  to  Richmond,  with  Allston,  of 

451 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

South  Carolina,  her  husband;  and  they  were  both 
present  at  the  trial.  Andrew  Jackson  was  on  hand, 
delivering  street  harangues  against  Jefferson;  Burr 
was  a  persecuted  man,  and  Wilkinson  was  an  in 
fernal  scoundrel.  Young  Winfield  Scott  was  there, 
an  eager  spectator;  and  so  was  Zachary  Taylor; 
so,  also,  was  Washington  Irving. 

Among  the  lawyers  for  the  defense  was  Edmund 
Randolph,  whose  character  had  been  compromised, 
but  whose  legal  talents  were  indispensable. 

The  leading  counsel  for  Burr,  however,  was  a 
volunteer,  Luther  Martin,  a  wonderful  lawyer, 
whose  intellect  and  learning  were  the  glory,  as  his 
intemperance  and  slovenliness  were  the  shame  of 
the  Maryland  bar.,  He  had  offered  his  services, 
partly  from  generosity  and  partly  from  spite.  The 
generosity  had  its  origin  in  fellow  feeling — Martin 
being  a  rabid  Federalist.  The  spite  grew  out  of  the 
odious  prominence  which  Jefferson,  in  the  Notes  of 
Virginia,  had  given  to  Colonel  Cresap,  the  alleged 
murderer  of  the  family  of  the  Indian  chief  Logan. 
Luther  Martin  had  married  Cresap's  daughter,  and 
the  family  bore  Jefferson  a  bitter  grudge.1 

The  animosity,  then,  of  at  least  five  of  the  men 
who  figured  in  the  trial  was  intense;  John  Ran 
dolph,  of  Eoanoke,  foreman  of  the  grand  jury; 
Thomas  Jefferson,  practically  the  prosecutor;  John 

1  The  old  age  of  Burr  were  spent  in  poverty  and  isolation,  but  he 
found  room  in  his  home  for  Luther  Martin,  who  was  penniless  and  who 
had  become  a  wreck.  Burr  supported  Martin  until  the  latter's  death. 

452 


BURR'S  TRIAL.    JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

Marshall,  the  presiding  judge;  Luther  Martin,  the 
leading  lawyer  for  the  defense;  and  Aaron  Burr, 
the  prisoner  at  the  bar.  It  was  a  great  battle.  The 
attorneys  who  prosecuted  were  no  match  for  those 
who  defended,  although  one  of  those  who  appeared 
for  the  Government  was  William  Wirt.  Burr  him 
self  was  a  great  case  lawyer;  and  Luther  Martin 
had  no  rival,  for  William  Pinckney,  of  Maryland, 
was  not  then  devoting  himself  to  the  law. 

But  even  had  there  been  a  balance  as  between 
lawyers,  the  huge  advantage  of  having  Marshall  on 
the  bench  could  not  have  been  overcome. 

Under  his  rulings,  the  Government  could  not 
make  out  a  case;  and  the  prosecution  went  to 
pieces.  During  the  trial,  the  Chief  Justice  actually 
attempted  to  compel  the  presence  in  court,  as  a 
witness,  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Jefferson  declined  to  honor  the  subpoena.  He  was 
extremely  indignant  at  the  conduct  and  rulings  of 
the  Chief  Justice,  but  he  did  not  call  him  a  dog  as 
Mr.  William  Eleroy  Curtis  states.  It  was  Luther 
Martin  to  whom  Jefferson  referred  as  the  "unprin 
cipled  Federal  bulldog,"  who  ought  to  be  "muzzled." 


So  early  as  November  5,  1806,  the  Legislature  of 
Vermont  invited  Mr.  Jefferson  to  become  a  candi 
date  for  a  third  term.  In  December  the  State  of 
Georgia  joined  in  that  request.  In  January,  1807, 

453 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Maryland  fell  into  line,  and  then  came  Rhode 
Island,  in  February,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
in  March,  and  New  Jersey  and  North  Carolina  fol 
lowed  later. 

Eighty-nine  electoral  votes  were  then  necessary 
to  a  choice,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  had  already  been  ten 
dered  the  support  of  safe  Republican  States  to  the 
number  of  79  votes,  with  Virginia,  South  Carolina, 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  to  hear  from  on  the 
formal  proposition  of  Jefferson's  declared  can 
didacy. 

Apparently  had  he  claimed  a  third  term  and 
put  his  friends  to  work  he  could  have  got  it. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  settled  prejudice,  no 
unwritten  law  upon  the  subject.  Washington  had 
merely  declined  reelection,  declaring  no  principle, 
and  putting  no  ban  upon  a  third  term.  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  had  originally  favored  a  single  term,  and  had 
stated  that  it  was  the  abuse  his  political  enemies 
heaped  upon  him  that  caused  him  to  seek  vindica 
tion  in  his  second  election. 

As  to  the  third  term,  he  did  not  hesitate.  Firmly 
and  conclusively  he  declined  to  become  a  candi 
date,  and  he  proclaimed  the  principle,  which,  like 
his  Monroe  doctrine,  has  become  law.  He  declared 
in  effect  that  the  third  term  was  dangerous  in  prin 
ciple,  appealing  to  the  lessons  of  history  and  citing 
Washington's  illustrious  example  to  support  his 
position. 

454 


BURR'S  TRIAL.    JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

"  If  some  termination  to  the  service  of  the  Chief 
Magistrate  be  not  fixed  by  the  Constitution,  or  sup 
plied  by  practise,  his  office,  nominally  for  years,  will 
in  fact  become  one  for  life;  and  history  shows 
how  easily  that  degenerates  into  an  inheritance. 

"  Believing  that  a  representative  government, 
responsible  at  short  periods  of  election,  is  that 
which  produces  the  greatest  sum  of  happiness  to 
mankind,  I  feel  it  to  be  a  duty  to  do  no  act  that  shall 
essentially  impair  that  principle." 

There  were  other  reasons  why  Mr.  Jefferson  de 
clined  reelection.  He  was  worn  out  with  the  cares 
and  the  confinement  of  office;  he  felt  that  his  mind 
was  becoming  impaired,  and  he  wished  to  spend  his 
remaining  years  amid  the  beloved  scenes  and  com 
panions  of  home.  He  yearned  for  peace,  quiet,  and 
Monticello.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  say  that 
he  quit  his  post  feeling  soured,  humiliated,  or  self- 
condemned. 

Mortified  he  doubtless  was  at  seeing  New  Eng 
land  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  her 
newspapers  flying  mottoes  of  "  Resistance  to  arbi 
trary  laws  is  duty  to  God,"  her  treacherous  Picker 
ings  feeding  the  insolence  of  British  ministers,  her 
good  city  of  Boston  adopting  nullification  resolu 
tions,  her  judges  and  her  preachers  trumpeting  re 
bellion;  but  he  could  hug  to  his  breast  the  conso 
ling  fact  that  three  citizens  out  of  every  four 
throughout  the  Union  loved  him,  believed  in  him, 

455 


LITE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

looked  up  to  him  as  one  of  the  great  men  of  the 
world.  The  votes  of  the  legislatures  of  the  various 
States,  as  well  as  the  addresses  of  public  bodies 
which  poured  in  upon  him,  assured  him  of  his  hold 
upon  the  hearts  of  his  people. 

Above  and  beyond  the  annoyances  and  humilia 
tions  of  the  last  few  months  of  his  term,  his  record 
of  glorious  achievement  lived  in  deeds  accom 
plished,  a  monument  more  enduring  than  brass.  Of 
this  he  felt  assured.  His  work  would  speak  for  him 
when  he  was  gone.  How  truly  great  that  work  was 
the  small  men  of  the  hour  could  not  know.  Poster 
ity  alone  could  realize  his  full  stature.  Life  is  just 
so  ordered  that  the  miserable  crab  can  always 
draw  attention  to  himself  by  gnawing  the  toe  of 
some  Hercules.  The  crabs  know  this  and  the  toe 
finds  it  out.  But  after  all,  after  all,  thank  God!  the 
great  man  is  a  Hercules  and  the  wretched  crab  is 
but  a  crab.  Only  the  Hercules  can  do  the  twelve 
labors;  the  poor  crabs  can  just  get  back  to  their 
holes — that  and  that  only. 

The  New  England  preachers,  editors,  and  judges 
who  denounced  this  great  man  as  the  paid  tool  of 
"Bonaparte";  the  pitiful  Callenders  and  Masons 
and  Cotton  Mather  Smiths  who  flung  mud  at  him 
and  bespattered  him  as  he  passed — where  are  they? 
Where  are  their  living  words,  their  imperishable 
works?  What  portion  of  the  human  race  is  hap 
pier  and  better,  what  part  of  the  Union  stronger, 

456 


BURR'S  TRIAL.    JEFFERSON'S  RECORD 

richer,  brighter,  because  of  their  having  existed? 
Who  brings  offerings  to  their  shrines,  who  lights 
tapers  at  their  altars,  who  drinks  inspiration  from 
any  rock  which  they  smote?  Dead,  dead  are  slan 
ders  and  slanderers;  dried  long  ago  and  fallen  off 
the  mud  they  flung  upon  the  stately  Virginian. 
Towering  through  our  national  history,  like  the 
Rocky  Mountains  which  he  brought  into  our  re 
public,  range  the  greatness  of  his  deeds.  Eternal 
as  the  Union  itself  are  the  principles  he  impressed 
upon  it. 

The  poison  of  monarchy  was  entering  the  veins 
of  our  body  politic,  and  he  drove  it  out.  Aristoc 
racy  had  begun  its  intrenchments,  and  he  leveled 
them  to  the  ground.  Militarism  was  about  to  be 
established,  and  he  checked  it.  The  public  debt 
was  being  posted  in  permanence,  and  he  well-nigh 
extinguished  it.  Hemmed  in  between  the  Missis 
sippi  and  the  Atlantic  we  were  about  to  be  con 
demned  to  a  national  position  of  the  third  class,  a 
tempting  prey  to  stronger  nations  girdling  us 
round  about.  With  a  sweep  of  the  pen  he  spread 
our  frontiers  toward  the  sunset,  never  resting  till 
the  feet  of  his  pioneers  touched  the  shore  of  the 
Western  sea.  When  he  took  the  oath  of  office  his 
country  was  a  straggling  line  of  seaboard  settle 
ments;  when  he  laid  down  his  trust  he  left  an  em 
pire — the  grandest  continuous  realm  dedicated  to 
democracy  that  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

457 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

It  is  true  that  Federalism  yet  sought  to  wound 
him,  but  its  refuge  was  the  New  England  town,  its 
power  was  gone  forever. 

The  question  had  once  been  whether  the  two 
Chief  Magistrates  were  kings  or  consuls;  they 
were  now  known  to  be  the  chief  servants  of 
their  masters,  the  people.  No  longer  a  "  great 
beast "  whose  self-constituted  lords  could  bar 
them  out  from  their  own  government,  the  masses 
were  in  power,  and  no  elector  dared  to  vote  con 
trary  to  the  expressed  will. 

The  prerogative  of  the  President  had  once  been 
stretched  to  give  him  arbitrary  control  of  the  life 
and  liberty  of  the  citizen.  No  such  law  could  be 
repeated. 

The  tongue  and  the  pen  of  the  citizen  had  once 
been  shackled  and  prisons  filled  with  victims  of 
tyrannical  persecution. 

Arrogant  Federalism  could  not  do  that  again. 

Peaceably,  patiently,  a  revolution  had  been 
brought  about  in  the  National  Government,  just  as 
the  same  reformer  had  revolutionized  Virginia. 
Not  more  surely  had  Jefferson  found  his  own  State 
verging  toward  feudalism  and  aristocracy  than  he 
found  the  nation  heading  toward  monarchical 
methods  and  principles. 

His  triumph  for  democracy  in  Virginia  had  not 
been  greater  than  that  which  he  won  for  true  re 
publicanism  in  the  broader  field  of  the  Union. 

458 


CHAPTER   XLVII 

DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

"  NOBODY  in  this  world  can  make  me  so  happy 
or  so  miserable  as  you.  Retirement  from  public 
life  will  ere  long  become  necessary  for  me.  To  your 
sister  and  yourself  I  look  to  render  the  evening  of 
my  life  serene  and  contented.  Its  morning  has 
been  crowded  with  loss  after  loss  till  I  have  nothing 
left  but  you." 

In  this  strain  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  his  daugh 
ter  Martha  while  he  was  minister  to  France.  To 
his  two  girls  he  was  both  father  and  mother.  He 
shared  their  griefs  and  joys;  he  selected  their  books 
and  directed  their  studies;  he  watched  over  the  de 
velopment  of  their  minds  and  their  bodies;  he  in 
stilled  into  them  the  wisest  precepts  and  the  purest 
principles.  Down  to  the  shoe-strings  he  gave  his 
personal  attention  to  their  every  want.  Public 
demands  upon  his  time  were  never  so  exacting  as 
to  shut  out  his  daughters.  When  they  were 
absent  his  long,  affectionate,  instructive  letters 
flowed  to  them  in  almost  unbroken  lines.  What 
were  they  doing?  what  books  were  they  reading? 
were  they  keeping  up  their  music  lessons?  did 

459 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

they  practise  dancing  two  hours  per  day?  did 
they  always  keep  busy  at  some  useful  work?  did 
they  wear  their  bonnets  when  they  went  out  in  the 
sun  and  wind?  were  the  flowers  yet  in  bloom? 
had  the  mocking-bird  arrived?  what  were  rela 
tives,  friends,  and  neighbors  doing  and  saying? 
when  did  the  bluebirds  appear?  when  wrere  the  first 
chickens  hatched?  is  the  garden  flourishing?  Gos 
sip  and  family  matters  mingle  with  facts  concern 
ing  the  gravest  matters  of  state;  and  questions 
concerning  certain  hogsheads  of  tobacco  are  fol 
lowed  by  the  announcement  "  Maribeau  is  dead." 
In  1801  he  tells  Maria  of  a  visit  to  Mount  Vernon 
and  of  the  kind  inquiries  which  Mrs.  Washington 
made  after  her — a  letter  which  would  seem  to  dis 
prove  the  existence  of  any  coolness  between  the  two 
families.  General  Washington  was  dead;  but  Jef 
ferson  would  hardly  have  been  visiting  the  widow 
at  her  home  in  the  familiar  manner  of  friendly  inter 
course  if  he  and  Washington  had  been  estranged. 
"  Continue  always  to  love  me,  and  be  assured  that 
there  is  no  object  on  earth  so  dear  to  my  heart  as 
your  health  and  happiness.  My  tenderest  affec 
tions  always  hang  on  you.  Adieu,  my  ever  dear 
Maria." 

Running  through  all  this  tender  correspondence 
the  refrain  is  "  Be  good,  be  good;  be  useful;  never 
be  idle,  always  be  at  some  work,  love  nature,  exer 
cise  in  the  open  air,  be  faithful  to  friends,  wish  no 

460 


DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

evil  to  enemies,  do  not  beg  for  anything,  do  not  be 
angry;  above  all  things,  be  good  and  useful  if  you 
would  be  happy." 

"  The  morning  of  life  has  been  crowded  with  loss 
after  loss  till  I  have  nothing  left  but  you;  to  your 
sister  and  yourself  I  look  to  render  the  evening  of 
life  serene  and  happy." 

The  evening  had  now  come,  and  the  aged  states 
man  was  turning  his  feet  homeward;  but  only  one 
of  the  daughters  was  left  to  make  him  serene  and 
contented.  Maria,  the  "  vision  of  beauty,"  too 
frail  to  bear  up  under  the  burdens  of  motherhood, 
had  died  in  1804 — died  in  the  spring-time,  when  such 
a  loss  seems  doubly  cruel. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  one  of  Jefferson's 
earliest  friends,  a  boyhood  favorite,  the  confidant 
of  his  first  little  love-affairs,  was  John  Page  of  col 
lege  days.  After  all  the  shifting  scenes  of  life,  Mr. 
Page  was  now  Governor  of  the  Old  Dominion,  while 
Jefferson  was  President.  In  the  time  of  his  grief 
for  the  loss  of  his  daughter,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  con 
soled  by  the  sympathy  of  his  old  friend  and  school 
mate,  Page,  and  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  of  reply  re 
minds  one  of  Edmund  Burke  bewailing  his  only  son. 

"  When  you  and  I  look  back  over  the  country 
over  which  we  have  passed  what  a  field  of  slaughter 
does  it  exhibit!  Where  are  all  the  friends  who 
entered  it  with  us,  under  all  the  inspiring  energies 
of  health  and  hope?  But  we  have  the  traveler's 

461 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

consolation,  every  step  shortens  the  distance  we 
have  to  go;  the  end  of  the  journey  is  in  sight,  the 
bed  wherein  we  are  to  rest,  and  to  rise  in  the  midst 
of  the  friends  we  have  lost. 

"  My  loss  is  great  indeed.  Others  may  lose  of 
their  abundance,  but  I,  of  my  want,  have  lost  even 
the  half  of  all  I  had. 

"  My  evening  prospects  now  hang  on  the  slender 
thread  of  a  single  life.  The  hope  with  which  I 
looked  forward  to  the  moment  when  I  was  to  retire 
to  that  domestic  comfort  from  which  the  last  great 
step  is  to  be  taken  is  fearfully  blighted." 

So  it  came  to  Mr.  Jefferson  as  it  comes  to  us  all 
— the  discrepancy  between  the  hope  and  the  reality, 
between  the  plan  and  the  result,  between  what  we 
ask — innocently  and  passionately  ask — and  what 
we  receive. 


For  more  than  thirty  years  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
held  office,  and  with  the  exception  of  his  four  years' 
term  as  Vice-President,  he  had  always  spent  more 
than  his  salary.  During  his  presidency  he  had  not 
seemed  to  be  extravagant,  but  he  rolled  up  a 
twenty-thousand-dollar  debt,  and  from  the  bur 
dens  which  came  upon  him  with  that  deficit  he 
never  escaped.  The  truth  is  that  he  had  some  ex 
pensive  habits  which  he  could  not  shake  off.  He 
loved  to  have  friends  around  him,  and  this  meant 

462 


DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

lavish  entertainment.  If  the  President's  house  was 
always  open,  which  it  was,  and  his  cook  was  the 
best  in  town  and  his  meals  the  most  bountiful  and 
appetizing,  as  they  were,  why  should  any  respect 
able  citizen  pay  for  his  dinner  at  a  fourth-rate 
tavern  where  the  victuals  and  cooking  were  poor, 
the  wine  and  coffee  weak,  the  company  undistin 
guished,  and  the  conversation  dull,  when  he  could 
enjoy  the  very  choicest  viands,  companionship,  and 
talk  at  the  Executive  Mansion,  free  of  all  ex 
pense? 

The  facts  were  undisputed  and  the  argument 
was  unanswerable.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  all  the  pat 
ronage  and  expenses  of  a  free  hotel. 

The  actual  cost  of  the  food  consumed  in  one 
year  was  about  $7,000.  The  wine  bill  was  nearly 
$3,000.  The  stable  bill  was  more  than  $1,000  .  Serv 
ant  hire  was  nearly  $3,000. 

Of  course  these  expenses  varied  with  the  years, 
but  they  give  an  idea  of  what  it  cost  him  to  live  at 
Washington.  To  be  exact  on  the  item  of  wine,  Mr. 
Jefferson's  own  figures  show  that  he  and  his  guests 
drank  $10,855  worth  of  wine  during  his  presidency. 
Besides  the  outlays  of  money,  there  were  the  serv 
ices  of  slaves  from  Monticello  and  the  value  of  pro 
visions  hauled  in  from  his  farm. 

Every  year  he  spent  hundreds  of  dollars  for 
books  and  for  charity,  besides  the  sums  he  loaned 
and  the  thousands  he  put  out  on  building.  His 

463 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Monticello  house  was  apparently  incomplete  as 
yet,  for  in  1801  there  is  an  entry  of  more  than 
$2,000  for  building,  while  in  1802  the  sum  charged 
is  $3,500.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  famous 
mansion  was  at  length  completed — a  house  which 
was  commenced  in  1769,  thirty-three  years  be 
fore! 

Another  expensive  taste  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
horses.  It  took  the  best  to  suit  him,  and  he  loved 
to  have  lots  of  them.  We  have  already  seen  that  he 
kept  eight  saddle-horses;  how  many  carriage 
teams  he  kept  we  are  not  told,  but  his  team  con 
sisted  of  four.  On  one  of  each  pair  rode  a  driver;  he 
would  never  trust  to  a  coachman  and  lines.  The 
four  which  pulled  his  carriage  while  he  was  Presi 
dent  cost  him  $1,600. 

Supporting  an  establishment  like  this  in  Wash 
ington,  he  kept  up  a  smaller  one  in  Virginia,  for  his 
daughter  Martha  and  her  children  made  their 
home  at  Monticello.  Thus  the  outgo  was  enormous, 
while  the  only  certain  income  was  the  presidential 
salary  of  $25,000. 

Overseers  had  charge  of  the  farm,  the  negroes 
were  not  made  to  work,  the  crops  were  small  and 
the  lands  had  been  washed  away. 

The  Wayles  debts  appear  to  have  pursued  him 
from  his  marriage  till  his  death.  In  the  year  1800 
we  find  him  excusing  himself  to  Thomas  Mann  Ran 
dolph,  who  had  applied  to  him  for  money,  on  the 

464 


DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

ground  of  the  Wayles  debts.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  not 
able  to  oblige  his  son-in-law  because  of  the  losses 
he  had  sustained  by  his  father-in-law. 

After  Mr.  Jefferson's  death  there  was  found 
among  his  papers  a  courteous  letter  from  the  agent 
of  the  Wayles  creditors  asking  about  further  pay 
ments.  Thus  it  would  seem  that  a  debt  of  less  than 
|20,000  pursued  Mr.  Jefferson  fifty-four  years,  de 
voured  about  forty  thousand  acres  of  land  and  was 
still  voicing  the  appetite  of  the  horse-leech! 

The  habit  of  setting  down  in  a  book  every  cent 
one  pays  out  for  stamps,  shoe-strings,  hair-cuttings, 
and  shoe-shines  does  not,  of  itself,  prove  extreme 
care  in  larger  matters.  In  Mr.  Jefferson's  case  such 
a  habit  certainly  proved  nothing  of  the  kind,  for 
when  he  woke  up  to  the  fact  that  he  could  not  get 
away  from  Washington  at  the  end  of  his  presi 
dency  without  borrowing  $7,000  or  $8,000  the 
reality  came  upon  him  with  a  shock  of  surprise. 
Thrown  into  an  "  agony  of  distress,"  he  wrote  to  a 
friend  in  Eichmond,  stating  his  mortifying  situa 
tion  and  asking  the  friend  to  borrow  the  money  at 
once.  Until  the  relief  should  come  the  anxious 
President  would  not  be  able  to  sleep. 

The  Richmond  friend  hurried  about,  got  the 
loan,  and  sent  the  money  to  Washington,  where  the 
most  pressing  demands  were  met  and  the  President 
tranquilized. 

At  the  inaugural  ball,  it  was  noticed  that  Jeffer- 
81  465 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

son  was  smiling,  genial,  almost  gay,  while  Madison 
wore  the  look  of  anxiety. 

Alas  for  these  Virginians — Jefferson,  Madison, 
Monroe!  A  lifetime  of  hard  work  for  the  nation, 
glorious  results  achieved,  highest  offices  held,  splen 
did  opportunities  enjoyed,  and  an  old  age  of  debt, 
poverty,  and  financial  suffering  to  face  at  the  end! 

A  heavy  drain  upon  the  resources  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  after  his  retirement  from  public  life  was  the 
company  which  came  to  Monticello.  Nothing  like 
it  was  ever  seen  even  in  Virginia. 

Famous  the  world  over  as  a  statesman,  a 
scholar,  an  experimental  farmer,  an  amateur  scien 
tist,  an  all-round  philosopher,  a  most  genial  host, 
there  were  legions  of  people  at  home  and  abroad 
who  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Jefferson.  Nobody  was 
turned  away;  everybody  was  bountifully  enter 
tained — he  and  his  wife,  child,  nurse,  man-servant, 
maid-servant,  horse,  and  dog.  The  guest  was  fed 
better  than  he  was  used  to  at  home,  the  mansion 
was  a  better  house,  the  view  was  superb,  the  air 
salubrious,  the  water  and  the  wine  good.  If  the 
guest  loved  books,  he  found  the  best  library  in  the 
land.  If  he  loved  hunting  and  fishing,  there  were 
the  rivers,  creeks,  and  woods.  If  solitude  was  his 
delight,  he  could  stay  in  his  own  room,  and  have 
servants  to  wait  upon  him.  If  he  doted  on  flowers, 
music,  and  polite  conversation,  he  found  all  these 
attractions,  day  in  and  day  out,  at  Monticello. 

466 


DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

Why  should  the  guest  be  in  a  hurry  to  leave? 
Why  not  spend  the  summer  right  there?  He  did. 
He  spent  the  summer,  was  asked  to  come  back  next 
summer,  and  he  did  so.  It  became  the  regular  out 
ing  place  for  some  of  the  nicest  people  in  America. 
Some  stayed  by  the  week,  some  by  the  month. 
Some  came  singly,  some  with  retinues.  Sometimes 
a  whole  family  would  move  in  and  spend  several 
months.  Fifty  guests  were  known  to  spend  the 
night  there  at  one  time.  To  feed  these  caravans,  to 
prepare  extra  beds,  bedding,  furniture,  washing, 
ironing,  etc.,  required  everything  produced  at 
Monticello,  and  more  besides.  The  overseers  had 
to  haul  corn  and  meat  from  other  farms  to  supply 
the  shortage.  Some  of  these  visitors  were  rela 
tives,  many  were  friends,  and  most  of  them  were 
worthy  people;  but  the  nuisance  grew  with  indul 
gence  until  the  abuse  was  intolerable.  Professional 
tourists,  idle  gad-abouts,  promiscuous  sight-seers, 
thronged  his  drives,  lined  his  terraces,  made  them 
selves  at  home  on  his  lawn,  followed  him  into  his 
groves  and  gardens,  peeped  at  him  through  the 
door,  kept  guard  on  him  through  the  window.  The 
inquisitive  female  who  punches  things  with  her 
parasol  came,  of  course;  and  she  poked  out  a  pane 
of  glass  to  get  a  better  view  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  his 
room — the  lion  in  his  cage. 

The  ardent  parent  who  points  his  instructive 
finger  at  things  for  the  benefit  of  his  little  boy,  and 

467 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

then  holds  up  the  little  boy  so  that  he  may  get  a 
better  look,  was  there  also;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  sit 
ting  on  his  portico  of  an  evening,  was  expected  to 
sit  still  and  look  cheerful  while  little  boys  and 
instructive  parents  were  mentally  taking  his 
photograph. 

Between  his  dining-room  and  study  was  the  hall 
way,  or  passage,  and  strange  ladies  and  gentlemen 
would  station  themselves  there  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  him  as  he  went  to  dinner.  Consulting  their 
watches  from  time  to  time  as  people  do  in  connec 
tion  with  schedules  and  circus  announcements,  they 
would  await  the  inevitable  hour  wThen  the  sage 
would  have  to  emerge  or  starve;  and  then  as  he 
made  his  way  to  the  dining-room  he  would  be  fol 
lowed  by  that  candid  style  of  comment  so  charac 
teristic  of  some  folks  when  they  are  in  other  folks' 
houses. 

Rank  imposes  obligations? 

Sometimes.  But  Virginia  hospitality  imposed 
its  obligation  at  all  times.  Mr.  Jefferson  might  re 
peal  primogeniture  and  entails — he  dared  not  lay 
his  hand  upon  the  venerable  tyranny  of  custom 
which  turned  his  dwelling  into  a  promiscuous  free 
hotel.  The  honor  of  Virginia  was  at  stake — Vir 
ginia  hospitality  must  not  be  shamed  in  him.  There 
was  no  privacy  possible  under  such  circumstances. 
The  companionship  of  his  family  and  his  real 
friends  could  not  be  enjoyed.  Uninterrupted  read- 

468 


DEBTS  AND  GUESTS  AT  MONTICELLO 

ing,  quiet  study,  were  out  of  the  question.  The 
place,  crowded  with  miscellaneous  men,  women, 
children,  servants,  dogs,  horses,  was  no  longer  a 
home  for  anybody.  The  owner  of  the  house  was 
simply  a  boarder  in  a  crowded  inn,  wrhere  all  the 
others  had  a  good  time  at  his  expense.  In  other 
words,  he  had  spent  thirty  years  and  a  fortune  in 
preparing  a  place  to  live  at,  and  now  it  was  ren 
dered  worse  than  useless  because  Virginia  hospi 
tality  and  his  own  good  nature  would  not  allow  him 
to  act  upon  the  principle  that  his  private  dwelling- 
had  been  built  for  himself.  Once  a  year  he  had  to 
fairly  run  away  from  Monticello,  leaving  it  all  to 
overseers,  negroes,  and  company,  while  he  sought  a 
little  rest  at  Poplar  Forest,  ninety  miles  away. 
Here  he  had  built  another  mansion,  at  the  close  of 
his  presidency  (regardless  of  those  debts),  and  on 
this  remote  plantation  he  found  the  rest,  recre 
ation,  and  privacy  wrhich  had  become  impossible  at 
Monticello. 

Mr.  Jefferson  never  lost  affectionate  interest  in 
any  member  of  his  family.  They  were  all  welcome 
to  his  house,  had  free  access  to  his  purse,  and  a 
warm  place  in  his  heart.  Every  year  one  of  his  car 
riages  would  be  sent  down  into  Roanoke  County  to 
bring  his  sister,  Mrs.  Anne  Marks,  to  Monticello, 
where  she  spent  the  months  of  summer. 


469 


CHAPTER    XLVIII 

THE   WAR   OF    1812 

THE  Federalist  school  of  historians  has  been 
very  severe  on  Jefferson  and  Madison  because  of 
the  War  of  1812.  The  harshest  words  of  the  vocabu 
lary  have  been  applied  to  them;  and  Mr.  Theodore 
Roosevelt  has  been  intemperate  enough  to  say  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  "  was  perhaps  the  most  incapable  Ex 
ecutive  that  ever  filled  the  presidential  chair."  l 

Living  in  New  England,  Woodrow  Wilson 
catches  the  color  of  the  leaf  upon  which  he  feeds; 
and  he,  also,  raises  his  Southern  voice  in  condemna 
tion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  virtually  charging  him  with 
responsibility  for  the  War  of  1812.  "  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  become  deeply  entangled  "  (with  France)  "  be 
yond  hope  of  extrication,  had  become  the  professed 
friend  of  France,"  etc.  "  Friendly  dealings  with 
England  had  been  given  up,"  etc. 

Was  ever  the  truth  of  history  so  distorted?  Did 
Thomas  Jefferson  really  provoke  patient  England 
into  the  War  of  1812  by  giving  to  her  the  cold 
shoulder,  while  to  France  he  gave  warm  embraces? 
Had  our  dealings  with  Great  Britain  been  friendly 

1  Roosevelt's  Naval  War  of  1812,  vol.  xi,  p.  198. 
470 


THE    WAR   OF    1812 

until  our  "  most  incapable  Executive "  entered 
upon  the  office? 

The  literal  facts  are  that  our  relations  to  Eng 
land  and  to  France  had  been  fixed  before  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  was  elected,  and  that  he  did  not  change  them. 
Washington  had  made  the  treaty  with  Great  Brit 
ain;  Adams  had  made  that  with  France.  Friendly 
ministers  representing  both  these  powers  were  at 
Washington  when  Jefferson  became  President,  and 
they  remained. 

In  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  he  had  not  en 
tangled  himself  with  Napoleon  at  all.  In  his  efforts 
to  buy  Florida  from  Spain  he  asked  the  "  good 
offices  "  of  France  because  it  had  been  understood 
that  they  would  be  given.  Napoleon  refused  to  say 
a  word  in  our  behalf,  and  there  the  matter  ended. 
What  was  it  that  Jefferson  had  done  that  had  car 
ried  him  "  beyond  the  hope  of  extrication  "  ? 

As  to  England,  the  facts  are  equally  clear.  Mr. 
Jefferson  exhausted  every  effort  from  first  to  last 
to  secure  honorable  treaty  relations  after  the  ex 
piration  of  the  Jay  treaty;  and  he  was  so  patient,  so 
persistent,  so  earnestly  conciliatory,  that  nothing 
drove  him  to  break  with  England.  She  might  seize 
our  merchantmen,  impress  our  sailors,  kill  citizens 
in  our  harbors,  as  at  New  York;  riddle  a  war-vessel 
and  bloody  its  deck,  as  at  the  entrance  of  the  Chesa 
peake;  and  still  the  President  strove  for  peace. 
Josiah  Quincy  flung  at  him  the  taunt  in  Congress 

471 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

that  "  this  administration  could  not  be  kicked  into 
war  "  with  Great  Britain. 

Yet  Woodrow  Wilson  discovers  that  Jefferson 
broke  off  friendly  dealings  with  England  and 
brought  on  the  war  by  going  so  far  in  friendship  to 
France  that  he  was  "  beyond  hope  of  extrication." 

Where  rests  the  blame  for  the  war  with  Great 
Britain?  It  must  have  been  on  her,  for  she  repealed 
the  orders  in  Council,  stopped  the  impressment  of 
seamen,  recognized  the  principle  that  "  free  ships 
make  free  goods  " — the  points  at  issue  between 
us. 

Do  Jefferson  and  Madison  deserve  the  wholesale 
abuse  they  get  from  the  Federalist  school  of  his 
torians — abuse  based  upon  the  assertion  that  the 
country  was  not  put  in  state  of  defense? 

The  President  alone  can  not  prepare  a  republic 
for  war.  He  must  be  supported  by  Congress  and 
the  country.  It  was  the  misfortune  of  both  Jeffer 
son  and  Madison  not  to  have  that  support. 

The  greatest  weakness  in  the  position  of  these 
two  Presidents  at  this  crisis  was  New  England. 
That  great  section  was  honeycombed  with  con 
spiracy  and  the  impulse  toward  secession.  Presi 
dents  and  presidential  policies  were  denounced  in 
pulpits,  newspapers,  town  meetings,  legislatures, 
and  gubernatorial  proclamations.  Treasonable 
correspondence  with  Great  Britain  was  kept  up, 
her  representatives  were  encouraged  by  New  Eng- 

472 


THE  WAR  OF  1812 

land  leaders  to  resist  all  of  the  presidential  over 
tures  for  honorable  adjustment,  signal-lights  blazed 
along  her  coasts  giving  friendly  notice  to  British 
ships. 

Thus  these  two  Presidents  were  placed  in  the 
most  embarrassing  position  ever  occupied  by  Amer 
ican  Presidents;  they  had  to  cope  at  the  same  time 
with  sedition  at  home  and  invasion  abroad. 

This  great  indisputable  fact  not  only  accounts 
for  the  lack  of  executive  vigor,  but  explains  also 
the  secret  of  the  disasters  which  befell  our  arms. 
The  attitude  of  New  England  demoralized  the  sol 
diers  in  the  ranks.  How  could  they  put  heart  in  the 
fight  when  one  great  portion  of  the  national  family 
was  denouncing  the  war  as  infamous,  tolling  the 
bells,  hanging  out  public  signs  of  mourning,  holding 
communications  with  the  enemy,  and  threatening 
secession  from  the  Union? 

For  instance,  there  was  General  Hull,  of  Con 
necticut,  who  had  fought  bravely  in  the  Revolution 
ary  War.  Placed  inside  the  fort  at  Detroit,  the 
safety  of  the  entire  Northwest  depended  upon  his 
maintenance  of  his  post,  yet  when  an  army  of 
British  and  Indians,  no  larger  than  his  own,  came 
up  on  the  outside  of  the  works  and  demanded  his 
surrender,  he  ran  up  the  cowardly  white  flag,  with 
out  firing  a  shot.  We  not  only  lost  the  Northwest 
by  this  shameful  capitulation,  but  its  demoralizing 
influence  was  beyond  all  calculation. 

473 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

What  was  the  matter  with  officers  and  men? 
Why  had  the  American  soldier  so  suddenly  lost  his 
luck  and  his  pluck? 

Mr.  Roosevelt  explains  it  all  by  saying  that  the 
troops  had  not  been  drilled.  Jefferson  and  Madi 
son  had  been  neglecting  the  drilling.  Did  soldiers 
inside  of  a  fort  need  drilling  to  hold  it  against 
British  and  Indians  outside?  Could  discipline  and 
experience  do  any  good  where  the  veteran  general 
of  the  Revolutionary  War  sat  on  the  ground  with 
tobacco  juice  oozing  down  his  chin,  refusing  to 
give  the  order  to  fight? 

Was  the  young  hero,  George  Croghan — an  Irish- 
American — helped  by  drilled  soldiers  when  with  160 
men  he  held  Fort  Stephenson  against  an  army  of 
British  and  Indians?1  Were  the  28  Georgians  who, 
under  William  Cone,  drove  away  from  the  St. 
Mary's  River  27  barge-loads  of  British  regulars 
under  General  Prevost,  killing  180  and  wounding 
as  many — were  they  drilled  soldiers? 

Who  drilled  the  riflemen  who  rode  to  King's 
Mountain? 

No  sane  man  underrates  the  value  of  drill  and 
discipline,  but  some  of  the  defeats  of  the  War  of 
1812  were  so  inexcusable  that  they  challenge  in 
quiry  into  causes.  Volunteer  soldiers  did  great 

1  Croghan  was  the  nephew  of  George  Rogers  Clark.  He  had  been 
ordered  by  his  superior  officer  to  evacuate  the  fort,  but  refused- 
begging  and  finally  getting  leave  to  stay  and  fight. 

474 


THE  WAR  OF  1812 

things  during  our  Revolution,  during  our  Indian 
wars,  and  during  the  late  civil  war. 

What,  then,  was  the  secret  of  the  disasters  of 
our  land  forces  of  the  War  of  1812?  More  than  any 
thing  else,  it  was  the  lack  of  unity  of  spirit  and  of 
purpose. 

For  the  American  volunteer  had  done  sublime 
things,  and  it  was  in  him  to  do  them  yet.  All  that 
he  needed  was  a  leader  who  put  his  heart  into  the 
fight,  and  who  meant  to  win  or  die. 

And  at  last  we  found  him.  While  New  England 
delegates  were  getting  ready  to  travel  to  Hartford 
to  hold  the  first  secession  convention  ever  held  on 
this  continent,  the  volunteers  of  the  South  were 
tramping  along  the  country  roads  as  fast  as  they 
could  go — to  meet  face  to  face  the  trained,  sea 
soned,  thoroughly  drilled  soldiers  of  Great  Britain 
— they  who  had  chased  the  eagles  of  Napoleon  from 
every  battle-field  in  Spain.  And  at  New  Orleans 
these  volunteers  whom  Jefferson  and  Madison  had 
not  drilled,  but  whom  Andrew  Jackson  knew  how 
to  lead,  gave  to  Great  Britain  that  crushing  defeat 
from  which  is  to  be  dated  the  time  when  she  first 
began  to  treat  us  with  the  respect  which  the  strong 
show  to  the  strong — the  brave  to  the  brave. 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  War  of  1812  was  written  in  1882. 
At  that  time  it  may  have  been  thought  by  military 
experts  that  the  day  of  the  militia,  the  untrained 
volunteers,  was  eternally  over. 

475 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

It  was  after  1882  that  the  undrilled  farmers  of 
South  Africa  taxed  the  utmost  strength  of  the 
world's  greatest  Empire  and  exhausted  themselves 
beating  the  British.  It  was  after  1882  that  Theo 
dore  Koosevelt  took  his  undrllled  volunteers,  the 
Rough  Riders,  and  led  them  to  victory  and  immor 
tality  at  San  Juan. 


The  speed  of  the  fleet  being  that  of  the  slowest 
vessel,  the  strength  of  the  chain  being  that  of  the 
weakest  link,  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison 
were  both  awfully  weighed  down  by  the  disunion 
movements  in  the  richest,  best  educated,  most  re 
ligious,  and  best  organized  section  of  the  Union. 

Historians  who  will  not  grant  them  allowance 
for  this  terrible  weakness  in  their  position  are  mere 
partizans — not  historians.  How  the  disloyal  atti 
tude  of  New  England  affected  Mr.  Madison  let  Will 
iam  Wirt  tell.  He  went  on  a  visit  to  Washington 
just  after  the  British  raid.  In  a  letter  to  his  wife, 
he  describes  the  ruins  and  desolation  of  the  city; 
he  visited  the  remnants  of  the  White  House,  the 
smoke-blackened  bare  walls,  without  roof,  cracked 
and  ready  to  fall.  He  called  on  the  President. 
"  He  looks  miserably  shattered  and  wobegone. 
In  short  he  looked  heart-broken.  His  mind  is  full 
of  the  New  England  sedition."  Mr.  Madison  intro 
duced  the  subject,  expressed  his  fears  that  New 

476 


THE  WAR  OF  1812 

England  would  secede,  and  make  common  cause 
with  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Wirt  tried  to  calm  his  ap 
prehensions  upon  that  subject  but  without  success. 
"  His  mind  and  heart  were  full  of  the  subject." 

Heart-broken  by  the  conduct  of  New  England! 

If  that  was  the  feeling  of  the  President,  what 
must  have  been  the  spirit  of  the  New  England 
troops — to  say  nothing  of  the  others?  Washington 
had  been  looted,  the  public  buildings  wrecked,  an 
army  of  7,000  put  to  flight  by  the  mere  appearance 
of  the  British,  who  numbered  SjOOO.1  The  Presi 
dent,  his  wife,  the  Cabinet,  Congress — all  had  to  fly 
the  Capitol.  In  a  little  hut  in  the  Virginia  woods 
Mr.  Madison  spent  a  night  in  misery  while  his  wife 
continued  her  retreat.  Fugitives  from  Washington 
insulted  him  as  they  fled — as  the  author  of  their 
misfortunes.  In  Hampton  it  was  reported  that  the 
British  had  committed  every  outrage  known  to  war 
and  had  invited  the  negroes  to  join  them  in  the 
atrocities.  Baltimore  was  more  fortunate.  The 
British  met  bloody  repulse — their  commander,  Gen 
eral  Ross,  being  among  the  slain.2 

Writing  to  William  Cary  Nicholas,  Mr.  Madison 

1  On  the  way  up  the  Potomac  when  the  British  vessels  were  passing 
Mount  Vernon  the  officers  stood  on  deck  with  their  hats  off — a  silent 
tribute  to  George  Washington. 

2  Readers  will  remember  that  Francis  S.  Key  had  been  sent  on  board 
a  British  ship  to  negotiate  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  that  he  was  de 
tained  through  the  bombardment,  and  that  next  morning  when  he  saw 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  still  floating  above  Fort  McHenry  he  wrote  The 
Star-Spangled  Banner  under  the  inspiration  of  his  joy. 

477 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

says:  "You  are  not  mistaken  in  viewing  the  con 
duct  of  the  Eastern  States  as  the  source  of  our 
greatest  difficulties  in  carrying  on  the  war;  as  it 
certainly  is  the  greatest,  if  not  the  sole  inducement 
to  the  enemy  to  persevere  in  it." 

This  was  the  truth — the  simple,  ruinous  truth. 
New  England  not  only  weakened  the  republic  in 
the  hour  of  distress,  but  strengthened  the  enemy. 
Stephen  Decatur  blockaded  in  New  London,  Con 
necticut,  by  a  superior  fleet  of  British,  and  attempt 
ing  to  steal  out  to  sea  on  a  dark  night,  was  be 
trayed  by  his  own  countrymen,  who  displayed  blue 
lights  to  warn  the  English  ships. 

Heart-broken  by  the  treason  of  his  people  and 
fearful  of  a  disruption  of  the  Union,  Mr.  Madison 
was  forced  to  consent  to  a  peace  which  left  un 
settled  the  issues  in  dispute.  But  for  Jackson's 
victory  at  New  Orleans,  the  War  of  1812  would 
have  been  a  remembrance  to  excite  shame  rather 
than  pride. 

Due  to  Jefferson's  "  criminal  folly  "  in  not  pre 
paring  the  country,  says  Mr.  Roosevelt.  "  Criminal 
folly  "  is  a  term  which  might  better  be  applied  to 
the  Congress  which  would  not  supply  the  sinews  of 
war  and  to  the  course  of  that  great  section  which 
divided  the  House  against  itself.  The  one  bright 
spot  on  our  war  record  from  the  first  was  our  navy. 
Whose  "  criminal  folly  "  made  that  navy  efficient, 
gave  it  a  taste  of  service  and  of  victory?  Thomas 

478 


THE  WAR  OF  1812 

Jefferson  did  it  by  declaring  war  upon  our  "  great 
and  magnanimous  friend,"  the  "  Barbary  pirate." 

Instead  of  sending  tribute  and  letters  of  flat 
tery,  Jefferson  sent  war-ships.  Dale,  Bainbridge, 
Decatur,  made  the  Mediterranean  the  training- 
ground  for  the  young  American  navy,  exercised  it 
in  actual  battle,  strengthened  it  on  the  strong  wine 
of  victory,  and  thus  made  it  ready  for  the  War  of 
1812.  That  this  was  done,  that  we  fought  the  Mo 
hammedans  rather  than  continue  to  pay  them,  that 
we  had  a  navy  which  had  learned  how  to  fight  and 
how  to  win,  was  due  to  the  timid,  incapable  Execu 
tive,  Thomas  Jefferson. 

The  arm  which  can  not  be  improvised  is  the 
navy,  and  the  glory  of  the  War  of  1812  was  won  on 
the  sea.  Perry,  McDonough,  Decatur,  Hull,  Law 
rence,  are  names  Americans  will  ever  honor. 

So  it  would  seem  that  somebody  had  been 
making  naval  preparations  for  war.  To  the  impar 
tial  student  it  will  also  appear  that  what  the  army 
most  needed  was  generals  who  were  willing  to  fight 
and  knew  how,  and  a  spirit  of  determination  in  the 
troops. 

The  city  of  Baltimore  was  in  no  very  good  condi 
tion  to  resist  the  British,  and  there  was  talk  in  the 
Council  of  capitulation.  The  venerable  John  Eager 
Howard  rose  with  all  of  his  revolutionary  heroism 
aflame,  and  cried: 

"  I  have  as  much  property  in  this  city  as  any  one 
479 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

man,  and  I  have  five  sons  in  the  army — but  sooner 
than  surrender  to  the  British  I  will  sacrifice  my 
property  and  see  my  sons  in  their  graves." 

One  man  like  this  inspires  a  whole  community, 
becomes  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  weak,  a  beacon 
light  to  the  doubtful,  a  bugle-blast  to  the  wavering. 

To  make  the  salvation  of  a  nation  depend  upon 
drill-sergeants  and  West  Point  regulations  is  the 
veriest  nonsense  that  was  ever  put  in  a  book — the 
mental  soap-bubble  of  rampant  militarism. 


480 


CHAPTER   XLIX 

RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS 

ONE  day  a  grandchild  of  Mr.  Jefferson  asked 
him  why  he  would  not  state  his  religious  convic 
tions,  he  replied: 

"  If  I  inform  you  of  mine,  they  will  influence 
yours — I  will  not  take  the  responsibility  of  direct 
ing  any  one's  views  on  the  subject." 

In  his  letters,  he  enters  so  frankly  into  his  be 
liefs  that  nothing  is  left  to  conjecture.  He  believed 
in  God — one,  not  three. 

He  believed  in  a  future  life  in  which  we  should 
know  those  whom  we  had  known  here.  He  be 
lieved  that  religion  consisted  in  being  good  and 
doing  good. 

He  believed  in  a  benevolent  design  in  creation. 
If  he  can  be  classed  with  any  church  at  all,  he  was 
a  Unitarian.  He  was  certainly  not  more  orthodox 
than  that.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  calls  himself  a 
materialist,  contrasting  himself  with  Christ,  who 
was  a  spiritualist.  He  rejected  the  Trinity,  the  di 
vinity  of  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

He  classed  Jesus  with  Socrates  and  other  great 
teachers,  regretting  that  he  wrote  nothing,  and 
82  481 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

that  we  have  to  take  so  much  of  his  doctrine  on 
hearsay. 

He  (Jesus)  had  no  one  to  write  for  him  as  Soc 
rates  and  Epictetus  had,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the 
learned  men  of  his  country  were  all  against  him  for 
fear  that  his  teachings  might  undermine  their 
power  and  riches.  His  doctrines  therefore  fell  to 
ignorant  men,  who  wrote  from  memory  long  after 
the  transactions  had  passed. 

Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  Jesus 
presented  a  system  of  morals  which  if  filled  up  in 
the  spirit  of  the  rich  fragments  he  left  us  would 
be  the  most  perfect  and  sublime  that  has  ever  been 
taught  by  man.  Whether  Mr.  Jefferson  was  ac 
quainted  with  the  system  of  morals  taught  among 
the  Hindus  long  before  the  time  of  Jesus  nowhere 
appears. 

It  would  seem  that  he  compared  the  system  of 
Jesus  with  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Jews,  the 
Romans,  and  the  Greeks — not  with  those  of  ancient 
Egypt  or  of  India. 

He  says  that  Jesus,  like  other  reformers  who 
try  to  benefit  mankind,  fell  a  victim  to  the  jealousy 
and  combination  of  the  altar  and  the  throne. 
Hence  he  did  not  reach  the  full  maturity  and  energy 
of  his  reasoning  faculties,  and  his  doctrines  were 
defective  as  a  whole. 

What  he  did  say  has  come  down  to  us  mutilated, 
misstated,  and  often  unintelligible. 

482 


RELIGIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

These  fragmentary  doctrines  have  been  still 
more  disfigured  by  the  corruptions  of  schismatizing 
followers  who  have  found  an  interest  in  perverting 
the  simple  doctrines  he  taught,  frittering  them  into 
subtleties,  obscuring  them  with  jargon  until  they 
have  caused  good  men  to  reject  the  whole  in  dis 
gust,  and  to  view  Jesus  himself  as  an  impostor.  He 
contended  that  it  was  the  priest — not  Jesus  him 
self — who  put  forward  the  claims  that  his  origin 
was  miraculous  and  divine.  He  read  the  Bible  just 
as  he  read  Euripides,  ^Eschylus,  or  Xenophon. 
From  the  New  Testament  he  made  the  volume 
called  Jefferson's  Eible,  which  contains  the  life 
and  teachings  of  Christ,  omitting  everything  about 
his  miraculous  birth  and  resurrection. 

In  writing  to  a  friend  about  this  little  book  Mr. 
Jefferson  regretted  that  he  did  not  have  time  to 
prepare  a  similar  volume, from  the  teachings  of 
Epicurus — a  philosopher  whom  he  defends  against 
Cicero  and  the  Stoics.  Writing  to  the  son  of  his 
dearest  friend,  Dabney  Carr,  he  tells  this  young 
man,  his  nephew,  to  put  the  Bible  on  a  par  with 
Livy  and  Tacitus,  to  read  the  one  just  as  he  would 
the  others;  and  by  inference  as  plain  as  inference 
can  be,  advises  him  to  reject  the  story  that  Joshua 
made  the  sun  stand  still,  and  that  Christ  was  the 
son  of  God,  born  of  a  Virgin,  who  reversed  all  the 
laws  of  nature  and  ascended  bodily  into  heaven. 
He  tells  his  young  nephew  that  when  he  reads  of  a 

483 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

miracle  in  the  Bible  he  ought  to  class  it  with  the 
showers  of  blood  and  the  statues  and  animals  which 
in  the  books  of  Livy  and  Tacitus  are  made  to  speak. 
In  other  letters  he  charges  in  effect  that  the  early 
founders  of  the  Christian  Church  borrowed  the  idea 
of  the  Trinity  from  the  Roman  Cerberus,  which  had 
one  body  and  three  heads.  Calvin's  creed  excited 
his  especial  horror;  and  his  language  was  never 
more  violent  than  when  denouncing  it. 

But  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  aroused  his  in 
dignation  also  because  it  compelled  the  individual 
to  take  leave  of  his  senses.  He  thought  that  to 
compel  a  sane  person  to  declare  that  he  believed 
three  to  be  one,  and  one  to  be  three,  was  a  priestly 
triumph  over  common  sense  which  was  degrading 
to  the  human  race. 

In  1822  he  wrote,  "  I  trust  there  is  not  a  young 
man  now  living  in  the  United  States  who  will  not 
die  a  Unitarian." 

And  in  his  letter  to  Pickering  he  speaks  glow 
ingly  of  what  might  result  if  we  could  get  back  to 
the  pure  and  simple  doctrine  of  Jesus — knocking 
down  artificial  scaffolding  of  the  Trinitarians  and 
doing  away  with  their  incomprehensible  jargon 
that  three  are  one  and  one  are  three.  He  said 
that  the  Apocalypse  was  the  ravings  of  a  ma 
niac.  Nobody  could  possibly  understand  what  it 
meant. 

But  what  theologian  ever  wrote  a  more  beauti- 
484 


RELIGIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

f ul  letter  than  this,  which  the  great  Deist  left  for  his 
little  namesake,  Thomas  Jefferson  Smith: 

"  This  letter  will,  to  you,  be  as  one  from  the 
dead.  The  writer  will  be  in  his  grave  before  you 
can  weigh  its  counsel.  Adore  God.  Reverence 
and  cherish  your  parents.  Love  your  neighbor  as 
yourself  and  your  country  more  than  yourself.  Be 
just.  Be  true.  Murmur  not  of  the  ways  of  Provi 
dence. 

"  So  shall  the  life  into  which  you  have  entered 
be  the  portal  to  one  of  eternal  and  ineffable  bliss. 
And  if  to  the  dead  it  be  permitted  to  care  for  the 
things  of  this  world,  every  action  of  your  life  will 
be  under  my  regard." 

This  wras  written  the  year  before  he  died. 

To  Peter  Carr,  son  of  Dabney  Carr,  he  wrote: 

"  Give  up  money,  give  up  fame,  give  up  science, 
give  up  earth  itself,  and  all  it  contains,  rather  than 
do  an  immoral  act." 


Mr.  Jefferson  had  always  taken  a  deep  interest 
in  guiding  young  men  in  their  reading,  their  studies, 
and  their  physical  exercises.  Even  when  he  himself 
had  barely  finished  his  collegiate  course  parents 
sought  his  advice  as  to  the  education  of  their  boys. 
In  this  way  he  mapped  out  a  program  for  weakly 
little  James  Madison  which  came  near  making  a 
gap  in  the  Madison  family.  James  could  not  carry 

485 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

the  load  which  the  strength  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
shouldered  with  ease.  To  his  two  daughters  and  the 
Carr  children,  and  then  to  his  own  grandchildren, 
Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon 
precept  for  three  generations,  and  sounder  lessons 
for  the  young  it  would  be  hard  to  find. 

His  system  may  be  summed  up  as  follows: 
Exercise  in  the  open  air,  walking  long  distances 
being  preferable  to  all  other  forms.  Violent  exer 
cises,  such  as  games  of  ball,  he  condemned.  Bodily 
health  is  essential  to  good  spirits  and  to  a  sound 
mind.  Never  be  idle;  let  each  hour  of  the  day  be 
occupied  with  something  useful. 

Do  not  sit  up  late  at  night;  study  and  work  in 
the  daytime.  Rise  early  and  go  to  bed  early.  Avoid 
novel  reading  and  cultivate  the  companionship  of 
good  books.  Never  tell  a  lie  or  stoop  to  a  mean  act. 
Be  kind  to  every  living  creature.  Speak  no  evil  of 
any  one.  Be  good,  adore  God,  be  loyal  to  friends, 
and  love  your  country  better  than  yourself.  Take 
hold  of  things  by  the  smooth  handle;  avoid  dis 
putes;  do  not  turn  pleasant  conversation  into 
heated  argument.  Too  much  speaking  is  not  best. 
Washington  and  Franklin  rarely  made  speeches, 
and  never  spoke  longer  than  ten  minutes — and  then 
to  the  main  point  only.  Never  put  off  till  to-morrow 
what  you  can  do  to-day.  Never  spend  your  money 
before  you  have  it.  Never  buy  what  you  do  not 
need  because  it  is  cheap.  Pride  costs  more  than 

486 


RELIGIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

hunger,  thirst,  and  cold.    We  never  repent  of  having 
eaten  too  little.    Never  borrow  trouble. 


In  his  old  age  it  was  natural  that  his  interest  in 
the  young  should  increase.  From  all  parts  of  the 
country  applications  came  to  him  to  advise  stu 
dents  who  appreciated  the  value  of  his  wisdom. 
Nothing  pleased  him  better  than  to  give  ambitious 
boys  the  benefit  of  his  experience,  and  to  whet  their 
appetite  for  knowledge.  Thus  disciples  gathered 
about  him — young  men  who  would  secure  board  in 
Charlottesville  and  come  to  Monticello  to  use  his 
library. 

Education!  Education!  The  word  rings 
throughout  the  long  life  of  this  great  statesman. 
Democracy  must  spread  among  the  masses  the 
benefits  of  education;  the  rich  must  not  be  allowed 
to  monopolize  so  vast  a  power. 

In  the  long  run  the  mind  rules,  ideas  prevail, 
the  thinker  is  king.  If  democracy  is  to  stand  its 
ground  against  its  ancient  eternal  foes,  it  must 
read,  it  must  think,  it  must  'know! 

When  a  mere  youth  in  service  he  had  endeav 
ored  to  adopt  a  thorough  system  of  state  educa 
tion.  He  had  failed  utterly,  but  he  did  not  sur 
render  the  purpose.  With  patient  stubbornness  he 
held  on  to  the  idea  all  his  life,  and  never  missed  a 
chance  to  win  converts  to  it. 

'487 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

Therefore  it  was  an  appropriate  rounding  out  of 
his  bequest  to  posterity  that  he  should  give  his  last 
years  to  founding  the  University  of  Virginia.  It 
was  the  old  workman's  last  job  and  one  of  his  best. 
Had  he  done  for  mankind  nothing  more  his  name 
would  have  won  honorable  mention  among  those 
who  have  benefited  the  human  race.  What  a  chap 
ter  of  heroic  endeavor  and  success  it  is!  The  aged, 
feeble,  debt-ridden  man  giving  a  thousand  dollars, 
giving  all  of  his  influence,  experience,  and  genius, 
using  every  act  of  diplomacy  with  factions,  unwill 
ing  legislatures,  smoothing  the  sharp  corners  of 
local  prejudice  and  sectarian  jealousy;  giving  his 
thought,  time,  and  labor  to  every  detail  of  the  build 
ing  and  equipment;  laboring  to  overcome  inertia, 
ignorance,  crass  stupidity;  submitting  to  many 
slights,  snubs,  rebuffs,  rebukes,  misrepresentations, 
but  holding  on  steadily  year  by  year  until  at  last 
the  institution  is  there,  soaring  above  all  obstacles 
and  opposition,  a  fixed  fact,  a  glorious  fact,  a  splen 
did  final  triumph  to  this  grand  old  warrior  in  the 
battles  of  human  progress. 

It  was  the  first  thoroughly  modern  school  in 
America. 

This  Benjamin  of  his  old  age — his  university — 
came  near  being  wrecked  by  his  own  nephew,  a  boy 
whom  he  had  been  steeping  in  sage  counsels  for  ten 
years.  A  mutinous  spirit  grew  among  the  students 
until  at  length  discipline  was  at  an  end  and  riot 

488 


RELIGIOUS  CONVICTIONS 

took  the  place  of  order.  The  faculty  was  helpless. 
Jefferson  and  Madison  hurried  to  the  scene,  spoke 
to  the  students  with  all  the  earnestness  such  a 
crisis  aroused  in  these  aged  ex-Presidents,  and  suc 
ceeded  in  quelling  the  disturbance.  When  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  discovered  that  his  own  nephew  had  come  so 
near  ruining  the  institution  which  had  cost  him  so 
much,  and  upon  which  his  hopes  were  so  fondly 
fixed,  his  anger  was  great  and  his  words  harsh. 
This  nephew  and  other  ringleaders  were  expelled. 


489 


CHAPTER  L 

POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

IN  the  author's  Napoleon  an  account  is  given  of 
the  royalist  reaction  which  followed  Waterloo.  It 
is  there  shown  how  the  Kings  first  used  the  people 
against  the  great  Emperor,  and  then  reensnared, 
reenslaved  the  credulous  people.  In  Spain,  Italy, 
and  Germany  the  uprising  against  Napoleon  had 
been  made  a  popular  movement  by  promises  of  con 
stitutions  and  democratic  institutions.  The  tyrant 
once  down  and  securely  caged  at  St.  Helena,  the 
people  were  fettered  hand  and  foot,  tongue  and 
brain.  The  Church,  the  State,  the  priest,  the  sol 
dier,  the  dungeon,  the  rack,  political  and  religious 
persecution  in  their  full  ferocity,  fell  upon  the 
masses  and  crushed  every  effort  at  reform. 

As  Dr.  Charles  B.  Spahr  has  shown  in  his 
Present  Distribution  of  Wealth,  it  was  during  the 
long  Napoleonic  struggle  that  the  little  band  of 
English  aristocrats  gathered  up  four-fifths  of  the 
real  estate  in  Great  Britain — a  process  which  ex 
plains  why  the  landlords  were  opposed  to  peace. 

The  anti-democratic  league  of  European  kings 
became  known  as  the  Holy  Alliance.  It  became 

490 


POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

their  sacred  mission  on  earth  to  put  down  every 
kind  of  popular  movement  and  to  reestablish  the 
good  old  absolutism  of  Church  and  State. 

Having  crushed,  brutally  and  bloodily,  every 
effort  of  the  people  to  resist  them  in  the  Old  World, 
their  eyes  turned  to  the  New. 

The  South  American  colonies  of  Spain  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  opportunities  Napoleon 
gave  them  to  throw  off  the  Bourbon  yoke.  They 
had  struck  for  independence  as  we  had  done. 

The  Holy  Alliance  determined  to  drive  back 
these  South  American  republics  into  the  clutches 
of  Spain. 

For  commercial  and  political  reasons,  Great 
Britain  did  not  favor  this  design  of  the  Holy  Alli 
ance,  and  proposed  to  us  a  joint  resistance  to  it. 

James  Monroe  was  President,  and  the  impor 
tant  issues  involved  prompted  him  to  seek  advice 
from  abler  men  than  himself.  He  turned  to  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  James  Madison. 

The  year  was  1823,  the  sage  of  Monticello  was 
eighty  years  old,  and  yet  his  letter  to  James  Mon 
roe  rings  like  a  battle-ax  on  the  iron  casque  of  a  foe. 
The  old-time  fire  was  not  quenched  nor  the  zeal 
abated. 

Listen  to  the  grand  old  man: 

"  The  question  presented  by  the  letters  you  have 
sent  me  is  the  most  momentous  which  has  been 
offered  to  my  contemplation  since  the  Declaration 

491 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

of  Independence.  That  made  us  a  nation;  this  sets 
our  compass  and  points  the  course  which  we  are  to 
steer  through  the  ocean  of  time.  Our  first  and  fun 
damental  maxim  should  be  never  to  entangle  our 
selves  in  the  broils  of  Europe.  Our  second,  never 
to  suffer  Europe  to  intermeddle  with  cis- Atlantic 
affairs. 

"  America,  North  and  South,  has  interests  dis 
tinct  from  those  of  Europe.  She  should  therefore 
have  a  system  of  her  own. 

"  While  Europe  is  laboring  to  become  the 
domicile  of  despotism,  our  endeavor  should  surely 
be  to  make  our  hemisphere  the  domicile  of  free 
dom." 

He  proceeds  to  argue  in  favor  of  the  English  al 
liance  for  the  purpose  proposed.  He  also  states 
that  the  United  States  ought  to  acquire  Cuba.  But 
waiving  that  for  the  time,  he  declares  that  a  decla 
ration  should  be  issued  to  the  effect  that  we  would 
"  oppose  with  all  our  means,  the  forcible  interposi 
tion  of  any  other  power,  as  auxiliary,  stipendiary, 
or  under  any  other  form  or  pretext,  and  more  espe 
cially  their  transfer  to  any  other  power  by  conquest 
cession  or  acquisition  in  any  other  way." 

The  letter  bears  date  October  24,  1823,  and  is 
the  first  full  and  explicit  setting  forth  of  the  Mon 
roe  doctrine. 

Afterward,  in  Monroe's  Cabinet,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  as  the  historian  McMaster  claims, 

492 


POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

added  the  further  clause,  "  that  land  upon  this  con 
tinent  was  no  longer  subject  to  European  coloni 
zation." 

There  was  nothing  added,  because  Jefferson's 
language  covered  every  possible  form  of  ac 
quisition. 

He  distinctly  said  that  the  United  States  should 
resist  with  all  our  means  the  acquisition  of  terri 
tory  here  in  any  shape  or  form  whatever  by  a  for 
eign  power. 

Europe  should  not  be  allowed  to  get  territory 
on  this  side  "  under  any  form  or  pretext "  or  by 
conquest  cession  or  acquisition,  "  or  in  any  other 
way."  If  that  language  did  not  cover  every  way  in 
which  territory  could  be  acquired  what  words 
would  have  done  so? 

When  John  Quincy  Adams  added  the  word 
"  colonize "  he  simply  supplied  a  specification 
which  had  already  been  covered  by  the  general 
declaration. 

Mr.  Madison's  letter  on  the  same  subject  ad 
vises  President  Monroe  to  agree  to  the  proposed 
British  alliance  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  the 
South  American  states  in  their  independence,  but 
it  takes  no  such  bold  stand  for  the  general  principle 
that  Europe  must  "  hands  off  "  the  New  World,  as 
does  the  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

In  the  presidential  message,  December,  1823, 
President  Monroe  followed  the  counsel  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 

493 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

son,  and  proclaimed  what  is  now  known  as  the  Mon 
roe  doctrine. 

Under  this  celebrated  new  law  in  the  inter 
national  code,  the  South  American  republics  were 
preserved  then,  Mexico  rescued  in  the  sixties,  and 
Venezuela  saved  from  dismemberment  in  1895. 


There  has  been  so  much  debate  concerning  Mr. 
Jefferson's  financial  views  that  it  may  be  proper  to 
state  them  briefly.  He  was  a  bimetalist,  believing 
in  the  full  equal  use  of  both  gold  and  silver. 

In  1806  he  ordered  the  mint  to  cease  coining  the 
silver  dollar.  The  silver  in  this  coin  being  worth 
more  than  a  dollar,  measured  by  gold,  exporters 
sent  it  abroad  to  get  the  profit — hence  as  fast  as 
the  silver  dollars  left  the  mints  they  became  mer 
chandise  to  be  shipped  away  from  the  country. 
The  law  authorizing  the  coinage  was  neither  re 
pealed  nor  amended.  The  mint  officers  were  simply 
directed  to  use  the  silver  bullion  in  the  coining  of 
other  kinds  of  silver  money,  to  wit,  half-dollars, 
quarter-dollars,  dimes,  and  half-dimes. 

These  smaller  silver  coins,  like  the  silver  dollar, 
continued  to  be  full  legal  tender.  The  mint  con 
tinued  to  coin  them,  so  that  between  the  years  1792 
to  1853  the  output  was  $77,000,000— not  counting 
three-cent  silver  pieces.  In  silver  dollars  only  18,- 
000,000  were  coined  from  1792  to  1873. 

494 


POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

Ten  days  before  closing  the  mint  to  the  silver 
dollar,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  approved  an  act  of  Con 
gress  which  gave  the  legal-tender  quality  to  all 
foreign  gold  and  silver  coins.  The  Spanish  milled 
dollar  was  already  a  legal  tender. 

He  not  only  had  absolute  confidence  in  the  Gov 
ernment  to  create  its  own  paper  currency  independ 
ent  of  banks,  but  he  contended  that  in  no  case  had 
the  paper  money  of  any  of  the  colonies  failed  to 
keep  on  a  par  with  gold  and  silver  when  such  colo 
nies  provided,  at  the  same  time  the  paper  was  is 
sued,  a  tax  to  redeem  it.  He  gave  as  a  reason  why 
the  Continental  currency  failed  the  want  of  power 
in  Congress  to  provide  for  its  redemption.  Another 
reason  was  that  the  Continental  notes  were  not 
money;  they  were  not  legal  tender,  and  they  only 
gave  to  the  holder  the  right  to  go  to  the  treasury 
and  swap  paper  for  coin — if  the  coin  was  there. 
As  the  coin  never  was  there,  the  paper  was  only 
paper. 

"  Rag  money  "  is  the  favorite  sneer  of  the  aca 
demic  historian,  yet  the  very  book  he  writes  is  paid 
for  with  rag  money,  whose  virtue  and  credit  is 
based  upon  another  rag.  The  Government's  bond  is 
a  rag,  the  national  banker's  note  issued  on  the  bond 
is  a  rag — but  how  glad  the  academic  historian  is  to 
get  it! 

Suppose  the  Government  should  put  the  banker 
aside,  call  in  the  bond,  and  issue  the  note  itself, 

495 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

putting  behind  it  the  same  law  and  credit  which 
upholds  the  bond  and  the  banker's  note,  would  the 
note  of  the  Government  be  less  valuable  than  the 
note  of  the  banker? 

Mr.  Jefferson  thought  not.  So  will  every  other 
citizen  who  will  consent  to  use  his  own  eyes,  his 
own  brain. 

Another  principle  with  Mr.  Jefferson  was  that 
legislation  should  encourage  the  equitable  distri 
bution  of  wealth.  The  growth  of  excessive  for 
tunes  should  be  discouraged.  Taxation  should  ex 
empt  all  below  a  certain  limit,  and  upon  the  larger 
properties  the  tax  should  be  assessed  by  a  geomet 
rical  ratio,  the  tax  growing  heavier  as  the  property 
grew  larger.  Legislators  could  not  invent  too  many 
devices  for  subdividing  property,  and  thus  pre 
venting  the  misery  which  flows  from  enormous  in 
equality. 


A  few  months  before  he  died  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote 
a  strong  letter  to  William  B.  Giles,  denouncing  the 
tendency  of  the  General  Government  to  usurp  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  States.  Such  a  consolidation 
of  powers  he  viewed  with  extreme  alarm.  The 
manner  in  which  Congress,  by  means  of  tariff  regu 
lations,  took  the  money  out  of  the  pockets  of  the 
agriculturist  and  gave  it  to  the  manufacturer,  he 
considered  a  shameful  violation  of  the  Constitution. 

496 


POLITICAL   OPINIONS 

The  construction  which  had  been  put  upon  the 
"  general  welfare  "  clause  made  the  remainder  of 
the  instrument  blank  paper.  Should  the  issue 
come  between  the  two  evils — dissolution  of  the 
Union  or  submission  to  a  government  of  unlimited 
powers,  there  could  be  no  hesitation  in  choosing 
the  former  as  the  smaller  of  the  two  evils.  To  this 
desperate  counsel  had  the  steady  increase  of  Fed 
eral  aggressions  driven  so  conservative  a  states 
man! 

The  manner  in  which  the  agricultural  States 
were  being  systematically  plundered  by  the  manu 
facturers  under  forms  of  law  were  as  apparent  to 
him  then  as  they  became  to  McDuffie,  Calhoun, 
and  Stephens  when  the  cruel  results  of  Federal 
favoritism  had  fully  developed. 

Many  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  declarations  prior  to 
1825  can  be  quoted  in  favor  of  moderate  encourage 
ment  of  infant  industries  until  such  infants  could 
get  some  of  the  strength  of  life  in  them;  but  his 
latest  deliverance  upon  that  subject  was  in  Decem 
ber,  1825,  and  was  made  in  the  light  of  the  tariff 
system  as  it  then  stood.  Eealizing  the  trend  of  this 
legislation,  it  was  Mr.  Jefferson's  final  and  delib 
erate  opinion  that  it  would  be  better  to  dissolve  the 
Union  than  to  submit  to  a  government  which  recog 
nized  no  limits  to  its  powers  and  no  restraints  of 
justice  or  shame  in  building  up  certain  classes  and 

sections  at  the  expense  of  others. 
33  497 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Mr.  Jefferson  believed  that  economy  was  one  of 
the  greatest  virtues  of  a  republican  government, 
and  that  a  public  debt  was  one  of  the  greatest 
dangers  to  be  feared.  He  considered  a  navy  needful 
to  our  safety,  but  condemned  the  idea  that  we 
should  have  a  navy  as  large  as  those  of  the  leading 
European  nations.  Such  a  policy  would  "  pull  on 
our  heads  that  load  of  military  expenses  which 
makes  the  European  laborer  go  supperless  to  bed." 
He  never  ceased  to  preach  against  standing  armies, 
and  to  insist  that  a  well-organized  militia  was  suffi 
cient  for  every  national  need. 

He  believed  that  home  manufactures  should 
be  encouraged  to  the  extent  of  our  own  con 
sumption  of  everything  of  which  we  raise  the  raw 
material. 

In  a  Report  on  Commerce,  made  in  1793,  Mr. 
Jefferson  fully  discussed  and  favored  the  policy  of 
reciprocity  which  he  had  previously  suggested  in  a 
letter  written  from  Paris,  in  1785,  to  James  Monroe. 
The  late  James  G.  Elaine's  name  is  so  prominently 
connected  with  reciprocity  that  there  are  many 
who  give  him  credit  for  originating  the  doctrine. 
The  basic  principles  upon  which  that  policy  is 
founded  are  set  forth  clearly  in  these  writings  of 
Jefferson. 

He  believed  in  the  income  tax,  progressively  in 
creasing  as  the  income  increased.  He  believed  that 
the  earth  belonged  to  the  living,  not  to  the  dead, 

498 


POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

and  that  each  generation  should  enjoy  only  the  use 
of  the  land.  He  denied  that  one  generation  had  the 
just  right  to  bind  succeeding  generations.  It  was 
on  this  principle  that  he  opposed  entailed  estates 
and  denounced  perpetual  national  debts.  Unfet 
ter  the  law  with  the  death  of  each  life  owner, 
and  "  let  each  generation  pay  its  own  debt  as  it 
goes." 

He  opposed  the  appointment  of  women  to  office, 
and  thought  the  whole  world  would  be  gainer  if 
commerce  enjoyed  perfect  freedom.  He  declared 
that  we  should  not  meddle  with  European  affairs, 
nor  allow  Europe  to  intermeddle  with  affairs  on 
this  side. 

"  World-mission  "  bombast  apparently  had  not 
entered  his  poor,  unprogressive  head. 

The  equal  rights  of  man  and  the  happiness  of 
every  individual  he  believed  to  be  the  only  legiti 
mate  objects  of  government.  So  far  from  being  a 
monomaniac  on  the  subject  of  gold  or  silver  as 
standards  of  value,  he  declared  that  a  fixed  quantity 
of  wheat  would  be  in  most  countries  the  best  per 
manent  standard  of  value. 

"  Foreign  relations  are  the  province  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  domestic  regulations  and  institu 
tions  belong  in  every  State  to  itself." 

"  Honesty  is  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of 
wisdom;  to  do  what  is  right  is  the  one  true  rule 
of  conduct." 

499 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

"  Let  all  the  world  pray  to  Heaven  that  at 
length  there  may  be  on  earth  peace  and  good  will 
toward  men." 


A  statesman  who  lived  so  long  as  Jefferson,  and 
wrote  so  much,  expressing  opinions  on  so  many 
topics,  would  have  been  more  than  human  had  he 
never  said  a  foolish  thing  nor  ever  involved  himself 
in  a  contradiction. 

The  men  who  hunt  with  microscopes  for  fly- 
specks  on  pictures  without  ever  being  able  to  see 
the  picture,  do  a  thriving  business  picking  out  the 
flaws  and  specks  in  Jefferson. 

But  after  all  is  said,  it  comes  down  to  this:  His 
dissimulation  was  that  of  the  man  of  the  world  who 
knows  better  than  to  tell  those  he  wants  to  use 
that  he  hates  them  even  when  he  does  hate  them; 
his  diplomacy  was  that  of  the  traveler  who  reaches 
the  summit  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance, 
his  inconsistency  was  that  of  the  practical  leader 
who,  not  being  able  to  get  what  he  knows  to  be  best, 
accepts  a  compromise  rather  than  get  nothing.  A 
theorist,  he  allowed  the  force  of  circumstances  to 
constrain  him  to  be  silent  when  his  convictions 
bade  him  speak;  to  be  quiescent  when  they  would 
have  urged  him  to  active  opposition. 

In  theory  he  was  an  absolute  free-trader,  but  He 
led  no  crusade  against  the  Federalist  tariff. 

500 


POLITICAL    OPINIONS 

He  believed  that  the  nation  should  supplement 
its  gold  and  silver  currency  by  a  national  paper 
currency  of  its  own — Treasury  notes  bottomed  on 
taxes;  but  while  he  was  President  he  made  no 
efforts  to  inaugurate  his  system.  He  stressed  it 
strongly  in  letters  to  his  son-in-law,  Eppes,  who 
served  long  and  prominently  in  Congress,  but  his 
system  was  only  partially  practised.  He  detested 
the  Federal  judiciary  and  denounced  the  judges  as 
sappers  and  miners  who  were  loosening  the  founda 
tions  of  democracy;  but  he  did  not  exert  himself 
to  cure  the  disease  by  any  constitutional  treatment. 
It  excited  his  profound  indignation  to  see  the  Gov 
ernment  abdicate  in  favor  of  national  banks  the 
sovereign  power  to  create  money,  but  when  his 
friend  Madison  was  about  to  sign  a  bill  to  incorpo 
rate  the  third  great  national  bank  we  do  not  find 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  protested. 

The  Constitution  did  not  authorize  the  acquisi 
tion  of  foreign  territory  or  a  system  of  internal  im 
provements,  yet  he  bought  Louisiana,  tried  to  buy 
Florida,  and  spoke  of  spending  the  surplus  revenue 
on  roads,  canals,  and  education.  An  ardent  advo 
cate  of  freedom  for  the  negro,  he  kept  his  own 
slaves  to  the  last. 

It  amused  the  learned  men  of  the  Philosophical 
Society  when  Vice-President  Jefferson  rode  up  to 
Philadelphia  with  a  bag  of  bones  tied  under  his 
carriage,  which  bones  turned  out  to  be  the  remains 

501 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

of  a  giant  ant-eater  instead  of  the  mastodon,  as 
Jefferson  had  supposed.  Much  laughter  can  be  had 
over  mistakes  like  this,  but  it  is  merely  another 
case  of  Newton,  with  his  big  hole  in  the  door  for 
the  cat,  and  the  little  hole  for  the  kitten.  Plain 
John  Smith  laughs  at  a  mistake  like  this — a  mis 
take  he  would  never  make — and  complacently  goes 
his  way,  a  wiser  man  than  Newton — in  his  own 
mind. 

Classically  educated,  George  Canning  was  pro 
foundly  amazed  to  learn,  after  he  had  grown  to  be 
a  man,  that  tadpoles  shed  their  tans  and  turned 
to  frogs.  Plain  John  Smith  knows  better  than  that, 
and  is  therefore  a  greater  man  than  Canning,  in 
Smith's  catalogue. 

The  apostle  of  Jeffersonian  simplicity  who  made 
his  own  fires,  who  would  return  the  bow  of  the 
humblest  negro  and  would  seat  at  his  table  any  re 
spectable  man,  no  matter  how  poor  and  unpopular, 
he  had  a  fine  house,  kept  foreign  wines,  had  many 
servants,  employed  a  French  cook,  ordered  a  coat  of 
arms  from  London,  rode  in  a  four-horse  carriage, 
sported  thoroughbreds,  and  would  send  his  saddle- 
horse  back  to  be  regroomed  if  the  cambric  hand 
kerchief  of  the  master,  passed  over  the  hair  of  the 
horse,  showed  any  stains. 

It  may  have  been  absurd  in  Mr.  Jefferson  to  op 
pose  such  titles  as  Mister  and  Esquire,  but  his  doc 
trine  of  "  Kesist  the  beginnings  "  was  profoundly 

502 


POLITICAL   OPINIONS 

wise.  His  earnest  advice  to  Washington  had  much 
to  do  with  those  changes  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Cincinnati,  which  rendered  harmless  what  threat 
ened  to  be  the  commencement  of  a  hereditary  mili 
tary  caste. 


503 


CHAPTER    LI 

LAST     DAYS     AND     DEATH 

QUIETLY,  usefully,  year  after  year  passed  with 
Mr.  Jefferson,  his  only  harassing  trouble  being  his 
debts. 

He  kept  up  his  correspondence  with  a  very  great 
number  of  people,  his  open-door  style  of  entertain 
ment,  his  interest  in  books,  plants,  trees,  birds, 
flowers,  his  gardens,  fields,  and  pleasure-grounds. 
He  rode  horseback  several  hours  every  day,  spent 
much  time  in  social  converse  with  relatives  and 
friends,  made  himself  the  idol  of  all  the  children, 
and  was  quite  happy  when  sharing  their  pleasures, 
forming  their  habits,  and  improving  their  minds. 
As  a  patriarch,  venerated  and  beloved,  his  tall 
figure  moved  through  the  gathering  shadows  of 
Monticello  with  a  majesty,  a  grave  sweet  dignity, 
which  few  attain. 

He  had  made  bitter  enemies — especially  in  Vir 
ginia,  where  he  had  removed  the  Capital  from  his 
toric  old  Williamsburg  to  the  then  straggling  vil 
lage  of  Richmond;  he  had  cut  off  the  ancient  aris 
tocratic  church  from  the  public  treasury;  and  he 
had  knocked  the  props  from  under  the  landed  aris- 

504 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

tocracy.  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  probably 
voiced  the  sentiment  of  thousands  when  he  de 
clared  that  Jefferson's  leveling  principles  had 
brought  upon  Virginia  financial  ruin,  lowering  at 
the  same  time  the  standard  of  character. 

To  these  causes  for  hatred  was  added  another: 
he  did  not  conform  to  the  religious  beliefs  of  his 
neighbors.  He  did  not  keep  his  views  locked  within 
his  own  breast,  as  Washington  had  more  prudently 
done.  That  indefatigable  pen  was,  every  now  and 
then,  giving  itself  all  the  license  of  the  free  and 
bold  thinker  to  whom  expression  is  absolutely  nec 
essary. 

Active  causes  such  as  these  kept  the  dogs  bark 
ing  to  the  last;  and  we  find  this  way-worn  servant 
of  the  republic  charged  with  having  overdrawn  his 
salary  while  minister  to  France.  The  libel  was  pub 
lished  in  a  Richmond  paper  at  a  time  when  the  old 
man  already  had  one  leg  in  the  grave.  Think  of  the 
mortification  he  must  have  suffered  in  being  com 
pelled  to  prove  himself  an  honest  man  in  his  home 
paper  and  to  his  home  people! 

He  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  Philosophical 
Society,  an  honorary  post  which  he  had  held  for 
eighteen  years. 

Through  the  kindly  offices  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush 
a  reconciliation  was  brought  about  between  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  John  Adams;  and  the  two  venerable 
statesmen  resumed  their  correspondence. 

505 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

In  a  fall  from  the  steps  of  one  of  the  terraces, 
Mr.  Jefferson  broke  his  other  arm,  and  being  now 
disabled  in  both  wrists,  writing  became  doubly 
painful.  Nevertheless,  the  industrious  old  man 
never  ceased  to  write.  The  last  motion  of  a  definite 
sort  which  he  was  to  make  with  his  right  hand  was 
the  motion  of  writing. 

His  eyes  continued  good  and  he  could  enjoy 
reading  to  the  last;  his  hair  turned  gray,  but  re 
mained  abundant;  his  teeth  remained  perfect; 
his  hearing  became  somewhat  dull. 

When  young  he  had  been  given  to  fine  clothes. 
In  France  he  wore  a  garb  which  his  secretary 
planned,  and  it  included  red  breeches.  When  he 
began  to  wear  these  trousers  in  New  York  as  Secre 
tary  of  State,  there  was  some  commotion  in  society, 
and  he  soon  left  them  off.  During  his  first  term  as 
President  his  raiment  is  said  to  have  been  studi 
ously  negligent.  The  political  literature  of  the  time 
identifies  particularly  an  old  pair  of  corduroy 
breeches,  which  had  been  in  the  tub  and  the  soap 
suds  so  often  that  their  color  had  faded  to  a  dingy 
white.  His  shabby  brown  coat  also  was  the  source 
of  considerable  suffering  among  the  fastidious. 

In  all  this,  political  spite  may  have  exaggerated 
the  facts.  During  his  second  term  the  complaints 
about  his  dress  died  away,  and  the  reader  of  cur 
rent  comments  notes  the  advent  of  the  black  coat, 
which  the  President  wears,  and  the  consequent  re- 

506 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

turn  of  composure  to  his  critics.  During  his  later 
years,  while  he  preserved  his  scrupulous  neatness  it 
seems  that  his  clothing  was  very  plain  and  old- 
fashioned. 

Frame  in  your  mind  the  figure  of  a  tall,  spare, 
straight  old  farmer  dressed  in  common  clothes 
and  surrounded  by  a  group  of  grandchildren  who 
climb  on  his  knees,  or  recite  their  lessons  to  him,  or 
play  around  him  as  he  strolls  slowly  about  his 
grounds,  and  you  have  a  fair  likeness  of  Jefferson 
in  retirement. 

The  embargo  and  the  War  of  1812  played  havoc 
with  Virginia,  and  the  losses  on  Mr.  Jefferson's 
farms  were  as  serious  as  elsewhere.  Crops  could 
find  no  markets,  and  the  value  of  money,  measured 
by  the  produce  which  had  to  buy  it,  was  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  cost  of  production.  Finally,  the 
overseer  was  discharged  and  one  of  the  grandchil 
dren,  the  favorite  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  took 
the  management  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  business  into  his 
own  hands. 

But  the  expenses  were  so  great,  there  were  so 
many  visitors  to  feed  and  serve,  the  interest-charge 
on  old  debts  was  so  heavy,  and  the  bad  crop  years 
so  frequent,  that  it  was  impossible  to  work  the 
property  out  of  debt.  One  of  the  finishing  strokes 
was  a  security  debt  of  |20,000  for  an  old  friend. 
There  being  no  market  for  land  at  fair  prices,  Mr. 
Jefferson  applied  to  the  Legislature  for  leave  to 

507 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

dispose  of  real  estate  by  lottery.  There  was  also  a 
suggestion  that  the  State  should  lend  him  money. 
Neither  of  these  plans  materialized.  The  British 
having  burned  the  Congressional  Library,  Mr. 
Jefferson  offered  to  sell  his  books,  his  fondly  treas 
ured  books,  to  the  nation.  There  was  much  con 
temptible  suspicion  and  ill  will  on  the  part  of  polit 
ical  enemies.  The  Pharisee  opened  his  mouth  and 
spoke;  and  the  Pharisee  announced  that  the  entire 
collection  of  books  should  be  rejected  because  it  in 
cluded  the  works  of  Voltaire.  The  Pharisee  had 
never  read  Voltaire,  of  course.  That  in  itself  would 
have  been  contamination.  But  the  Pharisee  had 
heard  some  other  member  of  his  tribe  denounce 
Voltaire,  and  that  was  sufficient — there  being  no 
prejudice  quite  so  stubborn  as  the  hereditary  sort 
which  doesn't  know  and  refuses  to  be  informed. 
Finally,  Congress  bought  the  books  for  $23,950, 
their  value  being,  perhaps,  four  times  that  amount. 
The  creditors  of  Mr.  Jefferson  got  the  money. 

It  becoming  noised  abroad  that  the  aged  states 
man  was  about  to  be  sold  out  of  house  and  home, 
public  subscriptions  were  set  on  foot  for  him.  New 
York  sent  $8,000;  Philadelphia,  $5,000;  Baltimore, 
$3,000;  Virginia  did  nothing.  In  fact,  his  home 
State  and  home  county  held  a  greater  number  of 
bitter  enemies  than  any  equal  area  of  the  Union, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  New  England. 

When  the  notorious  Callender,  whom  Jefferson 
508 


LAST    DAYS    AND   DEATH 

freed  from  fine  and  imprisonment  under  John 
Adams's  sedition  law,  demanded  the  Richmond 
post-office  from  President  Jefferson  and  was  re 
fused,  the  worst  abuse  he  could  throw  at  Jefferson 
came  in  the  shape  of  Albemarle  affidavits. 

In  one's  own  immediate  environment  are  to  be 
found  those  whom  one  has  combated,  and  perhaps 
overthrown;  the  competitors  one  has  distanced, 
the  former  associates  one  has  outgrown;  the  local 
opinions  one  has  risen  above;  the  narrow  preju 
dices  one  has  reproved;  the  envies,  jealousies,  cra 
vings  for  revenge  that  one  has  provoked — hence 
within  rifle-range  of  one's  own  house  are  usually  to 
be  found  the  hidden  fires  of  the  hatreds  which  are 
unquenchable.  It  was  so  with  Jefferson. 

The  voluntary  offerings  made  for  his  relief  by 
sympathetic  admirers  pleased  the  old  statesman 
immensely,  and  he  believed  that  his  debts  had  been 
paid.  On  the  contrary,  the  amount  thus  real 
ized  was  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  He  remained 
hopelessly  insolvent,  happily  unconscious  of  the 
fact. 

Unable  to  help  himself,  he  remained  capable  of 
helping  others.  It  was  his  suggestion  which 
started  the  movement  in  favor  of  Lafayette.  Con 
gress  managed  to  recall  what  Federalism  and  its 
historians  had  well-nigh  forgotten — that  France 
had  shed  its  blood  and  treasure  for  us  when  we 
needed  them  as  we  never  could  need  them  again. 

509 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

Lafayette  got  24,000  acres  of  land  and  $200,000  in 
money. 

Gouverneur  Morris  accuses  the  Lafayettes  of  re 
pudiating  one-half  the  loan  he  made  the  family 
when  the  Marquis  was  an  Austrian  prisoner  at 
Olmtitz.  The  portrait  of  an  ungrateful,  dishonest 
Lafayette  is  not  handsome.  But  there  are  other  pic 
tures  of  the  many-sided  Frenchman.  There  is  one 
that  would  group  Lafayette  and  Monroe — both  old, 
both  feeble,  both  poor.  They  had  fought  together 
when  they  were  nothing  but  boys.  They  had  hon 
ored  each  other  all  their  lives.  Now  as  they  were 
tottering  toward  the  grave,  noble-hearted  old  Jef 
ferson  was  able  to  turn  the  tide  of  fortune — not  to 
ex-President  Monroe  or  to  ex-President  Jefferson, 
but  to  ex-Revolutionary  volunteer  Lafayette.  And 
the  gallant  Frenchman,  his  purse  suddenly  full, 
turns  toward  his  feeble  companion  in  arms,  the 
moneyless  James  Monroe,  and  tells  him  to  take 
what  he  needs. 
;  "Honor  to  Lafayette!" 

In  that  attitude,  holding  out  the  open  hand  to 
the  Virginian  whose  "  soul  might  have  been  turned 
wrong  side  out  without  finding  a  spot  upon  it," 
Lafayette's  figure  stands  in  a  light  as  radiant  as 
that  which  shone  about  him  when  he  led  the  lines 
at  Yorktown.1 

1  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  Monroe  accepted  any  aid  from 
Lafayette. 

510 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

In  the  summer  of  1825  Madison  and  Monroe 
were  present  at  the  banquet  given  to  Lafayette  by 
the  University  of  Virginia,  but  Jefferson  was  not 
strong  enough  to  go. 

Lafayette  came  to  Monticello,  and  the  meeting 
of  these  two  relics  of  a  past  age  can  not  be  better 
described  than  Mrs.  Randolph  has  done  it: 

"  The  barouche  containing  Lafayette  stopped  at 
the  end  of  the  lawn.  His  escort — one  hundred  and 
twenty  mounted  men — formed  on  one  side  in  a  semi 
circle  extending  from  the  carriage  to  the  house.  A 
crowd  of  about  two  hundred  men,  who  were  drawn 
together  by  curiosity  to  witness  the  meeting  of 
two  venerable  men,  formed  themselves  in  a  semi 
circle  on  the  opposite  side. 

"  As  Lafayette  descended  from  the  carriage,  Jef 
ferson  descended  to  the  steps  of  the  portico.  Jeffer 
son  was  feeble  and  tottering  with  age,  Lafayette 
permanently  lame  and  broken  in  health. 

"  As  they  approached  each  other  their  uncer 
tain  gait  quickened  itself  into  a  shuffling  run,  and 
exclaiming  '  Ah,  Jefferson!'  '  Ah,  Lafayette!'  they 
burst  into  tears  as  they  fell  into  each  other's 
arms." 

Among  those  who  looked  on  there  was  not  a 
tearless  eye,  and  no  sound  except  an  occasional 
sob.  The  two  old  men  entered  the  house,  and  the 
crowd  dispersed  in  silence. 

In  all  public  events  Mr.  Jefferson  continued  to 
511 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

take  an  interest,  but  he  made  few  efforts  to  in 
fluence  men  or  measures. 

When  the  slavery  question  drew  its  sharp  geo 
graphical  line  between  North  and  South  in  1820, 
the  "  fire-bell  at  night "  aroused  him  from  slumber, 
filling  him  with  forebodings.  Upon  that  subject 
he  wrote  in  substance: 

"  The  Missouri  is  not  a  moral  question,  but 
one  of  power  merely.  Its  object  is  to  raise  a 
geographical  principle  for  the  choice  of  a  President, 
and  the  noise  will  be  kept  up  until  that  is 
effected. 

"  All  know  that  the  spreading  of  the  slaves  does 
not  increase  the  number  of  the  slaves,  but  dilutes 
the  evil  and  renders  easier  the  remedy  of  it.  In 
the  mean  time  it  is  a  ladder  for  rivals  climbing  to 
power." 

In  that  disappointing  work,  the  Recollections  of 
Richard  W.  Thompson,  the  author  describes  Mr. 
Jefferson  as  he  appeared  in  Charlottesville  in  1825. 
The  venerable  statesman  had  come  into  town  from 
Monticello  to  do  some  trading  at  one  of  the  stores. 
To  little  Thompson  it  appeared  that  Jefferson  was 
dressed  in  home-made  clothing.  His  shoulders  were 
stooped,  his  voice  feeble  and  trembling.  He  chose 
his  purchases  with  care  and  did  not  higgle  about 
prices.  The  merchant  was  very  deferential,  and 
when  the  trading  was  finished  took  his  customer  by 
the  arm  to  assist  him  to  the  carriage,  which  Jeffer- 

512 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

son  slowly  entered  with  the  aid  of  the  merchant 
and  the  old  negro  driver. 

In  Kennedy's  Life  of  William  Wirt  there  is  a 
note  by  the  author  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  is  vividly 
pictured  in  his  last  days: 

"  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  was  a  hot 
day  in  July  when  we  reached  the  top  of  the  moun 
tain  and  entered  the  spacious  hall  of  the  mansion. 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  very  ill  with  a  recent  attack 
of  his  malady,  and  therefore  excused  himself  from 
receiving  company. 

"  There  was  a  large  glass  door  which  opened  on 
the  hall  and  separated  Mr.  Jefferson's  apartments 
from  it.  Whilst  we  sat  in  this  hall  a  tall,  attenuated 
figure,  slightly  stooping  forward,  and  exhibiting  a 
countenance  filled  with  an  expression  of  pain, 
slowly  walked  across  the  space  visible  through  the 
glass  door. 

"  It  was  Mr.  Jefferson. 

"  He  was  dressed  in  a  costume  long  out  of 
fashion,  small-clothes,  a  waistcoat  with  flaps,  and  it 
struck  us,  in  the  brief  view  we  had,  some  remnants 
of  embroidery. 

"  The  silence  of  the  footfall,  the  old  costume,  and 
the  short  space  in  which  that  image  glided  past  the 
glass  door  made  a  strange  and  mysterious  im 
pression  upon  us.  It  was  all  that  I  ever  saw  of  the 
Sage  of  Monticello." 

As  his  strength  waned,  he  feared  that  he  might 
34  513 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

live  too  long,  might  linger  in  dotage.  This  he 
dreaded,  and  he  longed  to  die  before  he  became  a 
mere  driveling  imbecile.  To  death  he  looked  for 
ward  with  serene  confidence,  an  utter  absence  of 
fear.  A  gradual  failure  of  the  physical  organs  and 
a  dysentery  which  could  not  be  checked  brought  on 
the  end,  July  4,  1826.  To  the  last  he  was  clear- 
minded  and  resolute.  Declining  to  see  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel  except  as  a  "  kind  good  friend/'  the 
Deist  who  had  always  yearned  for  right  and  light, 
and  who  had  never  wilfully  harmed  a  human  be 
ing,  nor  ever  prostituted  to  any  base  purpose  his 
time,  talent,  or  opportunity,  put  his  feet  into 
the  great  road  without  the  slightest  tremor  of 
doubt. 

On  the  night  of  the  3d  of  July  he  had  asked, 
once  and  again,  "  Is  it  the  Fourth?"  His  last 
thoughts  were  on  his  country  and  its  birthday — 
the  only  birthday  he  ever  wanted  this  republic  to 
celebrate.  "  Is  it  the  Fourth?  "  Told  that  it  was, 
he  seemed  satisfied  and  passed  into  slumber.  Dur 
ing  the  morning  of  the  Fourth  he  was  in  a  stupor. 
Once  he  roused  himself.  The  fingers — the  long, 
chalky,  stiffened  fingers — took  the  old,  old  shape 
of  holding  the  pen  and  made  feebly  the  motion  of 
writing. 

With  his  last  words  he  said,  "Tell  the  com 
mittee  to  be  on  the  alert!  " 

The  spent,  relaxed  brain  was  falling  backward 
514 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

into  the  trains  of  thought,  the  ancient  grooves  of 
purpose,  the  bygone  battle-fields  where  he  had 
stood  in  the  ranks  along  where  the  foremost  stood. 

Timid?  No,  not  timid  then.  Incapable?  No, 
not  incapable  then.  Weak  and  vacillating?  Not 
then,  oh,  not  then! 

England  marked  him  as  too  bold,  and  she  wrote 
his  name  on  her  black  list — her  black  list  of  traitors 
where  the  names  of  Hampden  and  Sydney  and 
Cromwell  and  William  Wallace  and  Robert  Emmet 
are  found. 

Nervous  patriots  marked  him  as  too  bold;  and 
his  hot  counsel  was  put  aside  many  and  many  a 
time. 

"Tell  the  committee  to  be  on  the  alert — Vir 
ginia's  Committee  of  Safety,  perhaps,  of  which  the 
dying  man  had  been  chairman  in  the  days  that  tried 
men's  souls.  In  another  time  which  tested  the 
souls  of  men,  another  great  Virginian  called  out  in 
his  delirium,  "  Tell  A.  P.  Hill  to  prepare  for  action." 

Great  in  elemental  grandeur  is  that  race  whose 
leaders,  even  in  the  article  of  death,  cling  to  duty 
and  to  country,  rather  than  to  self — anxious  but 
for  the  cause  to  which  life  has  been  given. 

Bells  were  pealing  for  the  Fourth  of  July  all 
over  the  great  land,  the  boom  of  cannon  and  the 
sound  of  patriotic  music  thrilled  men  and  women 
from  Canadian  borders  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It 
was  a  classic  death,  a  sublime  death,  that  amid  such 

515 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

anthems  as  those  the  stoutest  leader  of  the  North 
and  the  boldest  statesman  of  the  South  should 
close  their  eyes  in  final  sleep. 


Thomas  Jefferson  and  John  Adams,  dying  on  the 
same  day,  July  4,  1826,  there  was  but  one  Signer 
left — Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton. 

The  old  Koman  was  living  in  retirement  at  his 
stately  Doughoregan  Manor,  near  Baltimore,  when 
on  July  20,  1826,  he  was  pressed  to  attend  the 
funeral  services  in  memory  of  Adams  and  Jefferson. 
There  was  a  solemn  procession  through  the  streets 
of  Baltimore,  a  draped  funeral  car  with  black 
horses,  a  band  of  music  playing  dirges,  a  troop  of 
horse  with  standard  draped  in  black.  In  a  carriage 
following  the  car  rode  Charles  Carroll,  the  only 
living  man  who  had  signed  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  and  John  E$ger  Howard,  who  had 
turned  back  the  rout  of  battle  at  the  Cowpens. 
Four  generations  trooped  behind  the  venerable 
heroes,  these  veterans  of  the  ancient  struggle  for 
liberty. 

The  Governor  of  Maryland  and  all  his  brilliant 
staff  were  there;  members  of  the  Executive  Council 
and  committees  of  arrangements  were  there;  a 
multitude  of  worthy  people  from  far  and  near  were 
there,  but  this  writer  has  eyes  for  two  figures  only 
— old  Charles  Carroll,  the  last  of  the  Signers,  and 

516 


LAST    DAYS    AND    DEATH 

John  Edgar  Howard,  the  hero  of  the  Cowpens. 

Two  of  the  noblest,  mourning  two  of  the  noblest 

it  is  a  spectacle  to  move  patriots  as  long  as  old 
glories  command  reverence;  and,  with  this  proces 
sion,  our  story  may  end. 


517 


APPENDIX 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFER 
SON,  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  MARCH  4,  1801. 

FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS: 

Called  upon  to  undertake  the  duties  of  the  first  execu 
tive  office  of  our  country,  I  avail  myself  of  the  presence  of 
that  portion  of  my  fellow  citizens  which  is  here  assembled 
to  express  my  grateful  thanks  for  the  favor  with  which 
they  have  been  pleased  to  look  toward  me,  to  declare  a 
sincere  consciousness  that  the  task  is  above  my  talents,  and 
that  I  approach  it  with  those  anxious  and  awful  presenti 
ments  which  the  greatness  of  the  charge  and  the  weakness 
of  my  powers  so  justly  inspire.  A  rising  nation,  spread 
over  a  wide  and  fruitful  land,  traversing  all  the  seas  with 
the  rich  productions  of  their  industry,  engaged  in  com 
merce  with  nations  who  feel  power  and  forget  right,  ad 
vancing  rapidly  to  destinies  beyond  the  reach  of  mortal  eye ; 
when  I  contemplate  these  transcendent  objects,  and  see  the 
honor,  the  happiness,  and  the  hopes  of  this  beloved  country 
committed  to  the  issue  and  the  auspices  of  this  day,  I  shrink 
from  the  contemplation  and  humble  myself  before  the  mag 
nitude  of  the  undertaking.  Utterly,  indeed,  should  I  de 
spair,  did  not  the  presence  of  many  whom  I  see  here  re 
mind  me  that  in  the  other  high  authorities  provided  by  our 
Constitution  I  shall  find  resources  of  wisdom,  of  virtue, 
and  of  zeal  on  which  to  rely  under  all  difficulties.  To  you, 
then,  gentlemen,  who  are  charged  with  the  sovereign  func 
tions  of  legislation,  and  to  those  associated  with  you,  I  look 

519 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 

with  encouragement  for  that  guidance  and  support  which 
may  enable  us  to  steer  with  safety  the  vessel  in  which  we 
are  all  embarked,  amidst  the  conflicting  elements  of  a 
troubled  world. 

During  the  contest  of  opinion  through  which  we  have 
passed,  the  animation  of  discussions  and  of  exertions  has 
sometimes  worn  an  aspect  which  might  impose  on  strangers 
unused  to  think  freely,  and  to  speak  and  to  write  what  they 
think;  but  this  being  now  decided  by  the  voice  of  the  na 
tion,  announced  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Constitution, 
all  will  of  course  arrange  themselves  under  the  will  of  the 
law,  and  unite  in  common  efforts  for  the  common  good. 
All,  too,  will  bear  in  mind  this  sacred  principle  that,  though 
the  will  of  the  majority  is  in  all  cases  to  prevail,  that  will, 
to  be  rightful,  must  be  reasonable;  that  the  minority  pos 
sess  their  equal  rights,  which  equal  laws  must  protect,  and 
to  violate  which  would  be  oppression.  Let  us,  then,  fellow- 
citizens,  unite  with  one  heart  and  one  mind,  let  us  restore 
to  social  intercourse  that  harmony  and  affection  without 
which  liberty,  and  even  life  itself,  are  but  dreary  things. 
And  let  us  reflect,  that,  having  banished  from  our  land  that 
religious  intolerance  under  which  mankind  so  long  bled  and 
suffered,  we  have  yet  gained  little,  if  we  countenance  a  polit 
ical  intolerance  as  despotic,  as  wicked,  and  as  capable  of  as 
bitter  and  bloody  persecutions.  During  the  throes  and  con 
vulsions  of  the  ancient  world,  during  the  agonizing  spasms 
of  infuriated  man,  seeking  through  blood  and  slaughter  his 
long-lost  liberty,  it  was  not  wonderful  that  the  agitation  of 
the  billows  should  reach  even  this  distant  and  peaceful 
shore;  that  this  should  be  more  felt  and  feared  by  some,  and 
less  by  others,  and  should  divide  opinions  as  to  measures  of 
safety;  but  every  difference  of  opinion  is  not  a  difference  of 
principle.  We  have  called  by  different  names  brethren  of 
the  same  principle.  We  are  all  Eepublicans;  we  are  all 
Federalists.  If  there  be  any  among  us  who  wish  to  dissolve 
this  Union,  or  to  change  its  republican  form,  let  them  stand 

520 


APPENDIX 

undisturbed  as  monuments  of  the  safety  with  which  error 
of  opinion  may  be  tolerated,  where  reason  is  left  free  to 
combat  it.  I  know,  indeed,  that  some  honest  men  fear  that 
a  republican  government  can  not  be  strong;  that  this  gov 
ernment  is  not  strong  enough.  But  would  the  honest 
patriot,  in  the  full  tide  of  successful  experiment,  abandon  a 
government  which  has  so  far  kept  us  free  and  firm,  on  the 
theoretic  and  visionary  fear  that  this  government,  the 
world's  best  hope,  may,  by  possibility,  want  energy  to  pre 
serve  itself?  I  trust  not.  I  believe  this,  on  the  contrary, 
the  strongest  government  on  earth.  I  believe  it  is  the  only 
one  where  every  man,  at  the  call  of  the  law,  would  fly  to 
the  standard  of  the  law,  and  would  meet  invasions  of  the 
public  order  as  his  own  personal  concern.  Sometimes  it  is 
said  that  man  can  not  be  trusted  with  the  government  of 
himself.  Can  he,  then,  be  trusted  with  the  government  of 
others?  Or,  have  wre  found  angels  in  the  form  of  kings  to 
govern  him?  Let  history  answer  this  question. 

Let  us,  then,  with  courage  and  confidence,  pursue  our 
own  federal  and  republican  principles;  our  attachment  to 
union  and  representative  government.  Kindly  separated  by 
nature  and  a  wide  ocean  from  the  exterminating  havoc  of 
one  quarter  of  the  globe;  too  high-minded  to  endure  the 
degradation  of  the  others,  possessing  a  chosen  country,  with 
room  enough  for  our  descendants  to  the  thousandth  and 
thousandth  generation,  entertaining  a  due  sense  of  our 
equal  right  to  the  use  of  our  own  faculties,  to  the  acquisi 
tion  of  our  own  industry,  to  honor  and  confidence  from  our 
fellow  citizens,  resulting  not  from  birth,  but  from  our  ac 
tions  and  their  sense  of  them,  enlightened  by  a  benign 
religion,  professed,  indeed,  and  practised  in  various  forms, 
yet  all  of  them  inculcating  honesty,  truth,  temperance,  grat 
itude,  and  the  love  of  man,  acknowledging  and  adoring  an 
overruling  Providence,  which,  by  all  its  dispensations, 
proves  that  it  delights  in  the  happiness  of  man  here,  and 
the  greater  happiness  hereafter;  with  all  these  blessings, 
35  521 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

what  more  is  necessary  to  make  us  a  happy  and  prosperous 
people?  Still  one  thing  more,  fellow  citizens,  a  wise  and 
frugal  government,  which  shall  restrain  men  from  injuring 
one  another,  shall  leave  them  otherwise  free  to  regulate 
their  own  pursuits  of  industry  and  improvement,  and  shall 
not  take  from  the  mouth  of  labor  the  bread  it  has  earned. 
This  is  the  sum  of  good  government;  and  this  is  necessary 
to  close  the  circle  of  our  felicities. 

About  to  enter,  fellow  citizens  upon  the  exercise  of 
duties  which  comprehend  everything  dear  and  valuable  to 
you,  it  is  proper  you  should  understand  what  I  deem  the 
essential  principles  of  our  government,  and  consequently, 
those  which  ought  to  shape  its  administration.  I  will  com 
press  them  within  the  narrowest  compass  they  will  bear, 
stating  the  general  principle,  but  not  all  its  limitations. 
Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  of  whatever  state  or  per 
suasion,  religious  or  political;  peace,  commerce,  and  honest 
friendship  with  all  nations,  entangling  alliances  with  none; 
the  support  of  the  State  governments  in  all  their  rights,  as 
the  most  competent  administrations  for  our  domestic  con 
cern,  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti-republican  tend 
encies;  the  preservation  of  the  General  Government  in  its 
whole  constitutional  vigor,  as  the  sheet-anchor  of  our  peace 
at  home  and  safety  abroad;  a  jealous  care  of  the  right  of 
election  by  the  people,  a  mild  and  safe  corrective  of  abuses 
which  are  lopped  by  the  sword  of  revolution  where  peaceable 
remedies  are  unprovided;  absolute  acquiescence  in  the  deci 
sions  of  the  majority,  the  vital  principle  of  republics,  from 
which  there  is  no  appeal  but  to  force,  the  vital  principle  and 
immediate  parent  of  despotism;  a  well-disciplined  militia, 
our  best  reliance  in  peace,  and  for  the  first  moments  of  war, 
till  regulars  may  relieve  them;  the  supremacy  of  the  civil 
over  the  military  authority;  economy  in  the  public  expense, 
that  labor  may  be  lightly  burdened;  the  honest  payment  of 
our  debts,  and  sacred  preservation  of  the  public  faith;  en 
couragement  of  agriculture,  and  of  commerce  as  its  hand- 

522 


APPENDIX 

maid;  the  diffusion  of  information,  and  arraignment  of  all 
abuses  at  the  bar  of  the  public  reason;  freedom  of  religion, 
freedom  of  the  press,  and  freedom  of  person,  under  the  pro 
tection  of  the  habeas  corpus,  and  the  trial  by  juries  impar 
tially  selected.  These  principles  form  the  bright  constella 
tion  which  has  gone  before  us  and  guided  our  steps 
through  an  age  of  revolution  and  reformation.  The  wis 
dom  of  our  sages  and  blood  of  our  heroes  have  been  de 
voted  to  their  attainment;  they  should  be  the  creed  of  our 
political  faith,  the  text  of  civic  instruction,  the  touchstone 
by  which  to  try  the  services  of  those  we  trust;  and  should 
we  wander  from  them  in  moments  of  error  or  of  alarm,  let 
us  hasten  to  retrace  our  steps,  and  to  regain  the  road  which 
alone  leads  to  peace,  liberty,  and  safety. 

I  repair,  then,  fellow  citizens,  to  the  post  you  have  as 
signed  me.  With  experience  enough  in  subordinate  offices 
to  have  seen  the  difficulties  of  this,  the  greatest  of  all,  I 
have  learned  to  expect  that  it  will  rarely  fall  to  the  lot  of 
imperfect  man  to  retire  from  this  station  with  the  reputa 
tion  and  the  favor  which  bring  him  into  it.  Without  pre 
tensions  to  that  high  confidence  you  reposed  in  our  first  and 
greatest  revolutionary  character,  whose  preeminent  service 
has  entitled  him  to  the  first  place  in  his  country's  love,  and 
destined  for  him  the  fairest  page  in  the  volume  of  faithful 
history,  I  ask  so  much  confidence  only  as  may  give  firmness 
and  effect  to  the  legal  administration  of  your  affairs.  I 
shall  often  go  wrong  through  defect  of  judgment.  When 
right,  I  shall  often  be  thought  wrong  by  those  whose  posi 
tions  will  not  command  a  view  of  the  whole  ground.  I  ask 
your  indulgence  for  my  own  errors,  which  will  never  be  in 
tentional;  and  your  support  against  the  errors  of  others, 
who  may  condemn  what  they  would  not,  if  seen  in  all  its 
parts.  The  approbation  implied  by  your  suffrage  is  a  great 
consolation  to  me  for  the  past;  and  my  future  solicitude 
will  be  to  retain  the  good  opinion  of  those  who  have  be 
stowed  it  in  advance,  to  conciliate  that  of  others,  by  doing 

523 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 

them  all  the  good  in  my  power,  and  to  be  instrumental  to 
the  happiness  and  freedom  of  all. 

Relying,  then,  on  the  patronage  of  your  good-will,  I  ad 
vance  with  obedience  to  the  work,  ready  to  retire  from  it 
whenever  you  become  sensible  how  much  better  choices  it  is 
in  your  power  to  make.  And  may  that  infinite  Power 
which  rules  the  destinies  of  the  universe  lead  our  councils 
to  what  is  best,  and  give  them  a  favorable  issue,  for  your 
peace  and  prosperity. 


524 


INDEX 


Act  for  ports  of  1691,  1. 

Adams,  John,  friendship  for  Jef 
ferson,  129 ;  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  143;  minister  to 
France,  241;  minister  to  Eng 
land,  244;  political  relations 
with  Jefferson,  365 ;  Vice-Pres 
ident,  430;  presidential  ad 
ministration,  350;  death,  514. 

Adams,  Samuel,  opposition  to  the 
Stamp  Act,  41 ;  and  American 
Independence,  131,  283;  Wash 
ington's  appointment  as  Com 
mander-in-chief,  147 ;  friend 
ship  for  Jefferson,  129 ;  Jeffer 
son's  letter  to,  402. 

Alamance  Creek,  the  fight  at,  77. 

Alfred,  Paul  Jones's  ship,  194. 

Alien  and  sedition  laws,  362,  376. 

Ancestral  homes,  meaning  of, 
169. 

Andre,  Major,  capture  of,  191. 

Annapolis  Convention,  292. 

Anti-Federalists,  as  a  political 
party,  330. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  Canadian  cam 
paign,  187;  treason  of,  191;  in 
vasion  of  Virginia,  233. 

Ashe,  John,  opposes  the  Stamp 
Act,  40 ;  revolt  in  North  Caro 
lina,  83. 

Bacon,    Nathaniel,    rebellion    of, 

282. 
Bank,     national,     beginning     of, 

316;  opposition  to,  318. 


Barbary  pirates,  war  with,  247, 

418,  479. 
Bayard,  James  A.,  Jefferson-Burr 

contest,  396. 
Beaumarchias,    Pierre    Augustin 

Caron  de,  assistance  to  Ameri 
ca,  165,  287. 
Bernard,    Sir    Francis,    on    the 

Stamp  Act,  45. 
Betsy,  captured  by  the  Barbary 

pirates,  249. 
Bibby,    Captain,    at    Monticello, 

184. 

Bland,  Colonel  Richard,  in  Vir 
ginia  House  of  Burgesses,  66; 

first  Continental  Congress,  109. 
Boiling,  Thomas,  51. 
Bon  Homme  Richard,  fight  with 

the  Serapis,  195. 
Boone,  Daniel,  224. 
Boston,  port  closed  by  Great 

Britain,  105 ;  sympathy  of  the 

colonies,  109,   134;   evacuation 

of,  187. 
Botetourt,     Lord,     Governor    of 

Virginia,  60,  152. 
Boucher,  Rev.  Jonathan,  129. 
Braddock,  defeat  of,  154. 
Buffon,      Jefferson's      argument 

with,  257. 

Bull,  Jesse,  cotton-gin  of,  338. 
Bulloch,  Archibald,  first  governor 

of    independent    Georgia,    137, 

163. 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  127,  187. 
Burgoyne,  surrender  of,   190. 


525 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JEFFERSON 


Burke,  Edmund,  on  the  Stamp 
Act,  45. 

Burr,  Aaron,  political  methods, 
377,  378,  387 ;  character  as  de 
scribed  by  Carroll  Morris,  389 ; 
Vice-President,  379,  382,  430; 
duel  with  Hamilton,  436;  con 
spiracy  and  trial,  447. 

Burwell,  Miss,  Jefferson's  atten 
tions  to,  87. 

Camden,  defeat  of  Gates  at,  190. 

Canada,  attempt  to  enlist  in  the 
cause  of  the  colonists,  189, 
285. 

Capital,  struggle  for  the  location 
of  the,  317,  395. 

Carr,  Dabney,  Jefferson's  friend 
ship  for,  23;  married  to 
Martha  Jefferson,  51 ;  Virginia 
Committee  of  Correspondence, 
100;  home  life  and  death,  101; 
family  of,  at  Monticello,  120; 
debt  of  the  republic  to,  283. 

Carroll,  Charles,  of  Carrollton, 
110;  Canadian  mission,  189, 
285;  opinion  of  Jefferson  and 
Burr,  389;  at  funeral  of  Jef 
ferson  and  Adams,  514. 

Gary,  Archibald,  Virginia  Com 
mittee  of  Correspondence,  100. 

Catholics,  appeal  to  Canadian, 
189,  285. 

Cedar  Springs,  battle  at,  206. 

Chase,  Samuel,  impeachment 
trial  of,  404,  425. 

Chesapeake,  attacked  by  the 
Leopard,  439. 

Clark,  John  Rogers,  223,  408; 
takes  Kaskaskia,  226;  expedi 
tion  against  Vincennes,  230. 

Clark,  Lewis  and,  expedition, 
416. 

Class  rule  in  America,  312. 

Clinton,  George,  ratification  of 
the  Constitution,  304. 


Coast  Survey,  beginning  of,  403. 
Committee     of     Correspondence, 

Virginia,  100,  106,  290. 
"  Common     Sense,"     publication 

of,  141,  174. 
Concord,  battle  at,  186. 
Confederation,    Articles   of,    290, 

306. 
Congress,  Continental,  First,  123, 

283. 
Connecticut   Compromise   in    the 

Constitutional  Convention,  298. 
Constitutional  Convention,  gene 
sis,   292;    meets,    297;    adopts 

the  Constitution,  298. 
Cornstalk,  Indian  chief,  defeated 

at  the  Great  Kanawha,  111. 
Cornwallis,   in   command    in  the 

South,  207 ;  at  Yorktown,  213. 
Correspondence,     Committee     of, 

100,  106,  290. 

Cotton-gin,  invention  of,  338. 
Courts,    Federal,    power   of    the, 

406. 

Cowpens,  battle  of,  212,  219. 
Croghan,  George,  defense  of  Fort 

Stephenson,  474. 

Dale,      Richard,     on     the     Bon 

Homme  Richard,  199. 
Dayton,    Jonathan,   in   Constitu 
tional  Convention,  297. 
Deane,  Silas,  minister  to  France, 

166,  287. 
Dearborn,    Henry,    Secretary    of 

War,  428. 
De  Bonvouloir,  French  envoy  at 

Philadelphia,  165,  286. 
Decatur,    Stephen,    betrayed    at 

New  London,  478. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  108, 

157;  reception  in  the  colonies, 

161. 

Declaration  of  Rights,  1765,  123. 
De  Kalb,  Baron,  aid  to  America, 

190. 


526 


INDEX 


De  Marbois,  French  envoy  to 
Philadelphia,  236. 

Democracy,  debt  of,  to  Virginia, 
277. 

De  Reidesel,  General,  at  Monti- 
cello,  183. 

Dexter,  Samuel,  Secretary  of 
War,  377. 

Dinwiddie,  Robert,  Governor  of 
Virginia,  150. 

Douglass,  Rev.  William,  tutor  to 
Jefferson,  13. 

Dudingston,  Lieutenant,  com 
mander  of  the  Gaspee,  96. 

Dungeness,  home  of  the  Ran 
dolphs,  5. 

Dunmore,  Lord,  Governor  of 
Virginia,  106,  152,  293;  battle 
with  the  Indians  on  the  Great 
Kanawha,  111;  Patrick  Hen 
ry's  march  on  Williamsburg, 
124;  flight  to  England,  118, 
132,  185;  ravages  the  Chesa 
peake,  140;  Washington's  rela 
tions  with,  155. 

Easton,    Pa.,    treaty    with    the 

Indians  at,  284. 
Education    in   colonial   Virginia, 

15 ;  Jefferson's  reforms  in  Vir 
ginia,  182. 
Elections,  method  of  conducting 

presidential,    382;    change    in, 

439. 

Embargo,  the,  439,  442. 
Entail,  law  of,  in  Virginia,  work 

of  Jefferson  to  abolish,  166. 
Eppes,  John,  marries  Jefferson's 

daughter,  341,  365. 
Estates,   naming  of,   in   colonial 

Virginia,  169. 

Fairfax,  Lord,  150. 
Falmouth,  destruction  of,  by  the 
British,  141. 


Fanning,  Colonel  Edmund,  with 
Tryon  in  North  Carolina,  75. 

Fauquier,  Francis,  Governor  of 
Virginia,  friendship  for  Jeffer 
son,  17;  death,  60. 

Federalists,  as  a  political  party, 
330. 

Fenno's  Gazette,  332. 

Ferguson,  General  Patrick,  at 
King's  Mountain,  207. 

Few,  Captain  William,  of  the 
North  Carolina  Regulators,  78. 

Force  Bill,  the,  443. 

Fort  Jefferson,  232,  299. 

Fort  Necessity,  surrender  of,  154. 

Fort  Sullivan,  defense  of,  by 
Moultrie,  143. 

Fort  Washington,  capture  of, 
189. 

France,  condition  of,  in  the  lat 
ter  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  96;  struggle  with  Great 
Britain  for  the  possession  of 
America,  28;  in  the  Ohio  Val 
ley,  151;  aid  against  Great 
Britain  during  the  Revolution, 
165,  190,  215,  285,  324;  Genet's 
mission  to  America,  323,  355; 
threat  to  invade  United  States, 
356;  plans  for  development  of 
Louisiana,  410. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  131,  159; 
Canadian  mission,  189,  285; 
minister  to  France,  166,  241, 
288;  in  Constitutional  Conven 
tion,  297. 

French  Revolution,  Jefferson's 
traditional  debt  to,  108;  let 
ters  in  regard  to  the  condition 
of  the  French  peasantry,  262; 
Jefferson's  relation  to,  265 ; 
Genet's  mission  to  America, 
323 ;  Monroe's  relation  to,  353. 

Freneau's  Gazette,  332. 


527 


LIFE   AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 


Gage,  General  Thomas,  on  the 
Stamp  Act,  45. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  428. 

Gaspee,  destruction  of  the,   96. 

Genet  episode,  the,  322,  444. 

Georgia,  condition  of,  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution,  133. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  in  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention,  314. 

Gibault,  Pierre,  and  George  Rog 
ers  Clark,  227. 

Gist,  Christopher,  in  the  Ohio 
Valley,  151,  154. 

Granger,  Gideon,  Postmaster- 
General,  428. 

Great  Britain,  and  the  American 
Revolution,  27 ;  attitude  to 
ward  French  Revolution,  323 ; 
attitude  toward  United  States 
after  Revolution,  355,  439. 

Griswold,  Roger,  attack  on  Mat 
thew  Lyon,  374. 

Guilford  Court-House,  battle  of, 
213. 

Habersham,  James,  opposition  to 
the  Stamp  Act,  134. 

Habersham,  Major  Joseph,  at 
head  of  Georgia  patriots,  137. 

Hale,  Nathan,  execution  of,  188. 

Hall,  Dr.  Lyman,  136. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  at  York- 
town,  216;  Annapolis  Conven 
tion,  292;  Constitutional  Con 
vention,  297;  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  310;  political  sys 
tem  of,  311,  319,  331,  388;  the 
Genet  episode,  327;  on  Wash 
ington's  death,  348 ;  at  head  of 
the  army,  357;  intrigue  with 
Miranda,  360,  378,  389,  413; 
the  Jefferson-Burr  contest,  385, 
395;  final  struggle  with  Burr 
and  death,  433. 

Hamilton,  Henry,  in  the  wilder 


ness,  224;  takes  Vincennes, 
229;  surrenders  to  Clark,  231. 

Hancock,  John,  Declaration  of 
Independence,  159. 

Harnet,  Cornelius,  the  Mecklen 
burg  Resolutions,  158. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  first  Conti 
nental  Congress,  109. 

Hartford,  Secession  Convention 
at,  475. 

Harvey,  John,  Jefferson's  guar 
dian,  14. 

Henry,  Patrick,  3,  33;  education 
and  professional  career,  49,  57 ; 
friendship  for  Jefferson,  46, 
117;  break  with  Jefferson, 
49;  speech  in  the  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses,  41;  the 
Parsons  case,  47,  50;  march  on 
Williamsburg,  84,  124,  155; 
Virginia  Committee  of  Corre 
spondence,  99;  first  Continen 
tal  Congress,  109;  in  com 
mand  of  Virginia  forces,  140; 
Governor  of  Virginia,  185;  in 
Virginia  Convention,  299 ;  alien 
and  sedition  laws,  376;  debate 
with  John  Randolph,  422. 

Hermitage,  The,  home  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  xi. 

Hessians,  employed  by  Great 
Britain,  157. 

Holland,  aid  to  the  colonists,  189. 

Holy  Alliance,  489. 

Howard,  John  Eager,  at  Cow- 
pens,  213;  at  funeral  of  Jef 
ferson  and  Adams,  514. 

Hull,  General  William,  surrender 
of  Detroit,  473. 

Husbands,  Herman,  leads  revolt 
against  Governor  Tryon  in 
North  Carolina,  74. 


Impressment    of    American    sea 
men,  329,  440,  445. 
Indians,    Jefferson's   interest  in, 


528 


INDEX 


9;  employed  by  the  British 
against  the  colonies,  157,  223; 
troubles  with,  following  the 
Revolution,  441. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  xi;  War  of 
1812,  475 ;  the  Burr  conspiracy, 
447. 

Jamestown,  the  founders  of,  279. 

Jasper,  Sergeant,  at  battle  of 
Fort  Sullivan,  144. 

Jay,  John,  129;  Annapolis  Con 
vention,  292;  treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  345,  355,  370. 

Jefferson,  Jane,  Jefferson's  fa 
vorite  sister,  death,  51. 

Jefferson,  Jane  (Randolph), 
mother  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
3;  marriage,  5;  at  Shadwell, 
120. 

Jefferson,  Martha,  elder  daughter 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  241,  270; 
marriage,  341 ;  letters  to,  459. 

Jefferson,  Martha,  wife  of  Thom 
as  Jefferson,  marriage,  87; 
character,  90;  musical  ability, 
115;  ill  health,  182;  death, 
234. 

Jefferson,  Mary,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  270;  mar 
riage,  341,  365;  death,  461. 

Jefferson,  Mary,  sister  of  Thom 
as  Jefferson,  marriage  to  Dab- 
ney  Carr,  51. 

Jefferson,  Peter,  father  of  Thom 
as  Jefferson,  2,  150;  marriage, 
6 ;  death,  7. 

Jefferson,  Randolph,  brother  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  71,  note, 
120. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  ancestry,  1 ; 
appearance,  20,  50&  51&; 
Bible,  482;  birth,  7;  boyhood 
and  education,  1,  11,  19;  char 
acter,  21;  children,  182,  270, 
459;  debts,  92,  340,  462,  505; 


death,  512;  ideas  of  education, 
484 ;  financial  views,  493 ; 
home  life,  340;  income,  55; 
inventions,  343;  last  years, 
502;  letters,  262,  459;  love  of 
nature,  344 ;  marriage,  87 ; 
musical  ability,  115,  184;  note 
books,  52;  physical  training, 
8,  11,  21;  political  courage, 
366 ;  political  system,  331,  495 ; 
religious  belief,  480;  college 
days,  14;  enters  the  law,  20; 
admitted  to  the  bar,  51;  legal 
practise,  56;  elected  burgess, 
60;  succeeds  Randolph  in  Con 
tinental  Congress,  126;  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  185;  services 
in  Congress,  237;  minister  to 
France,  241,  255,  274;  Secre 
tary  of  State  in  Washington's 
Cabinet,  335 ;  resigns,  334 ;  the 
Genet  episode,  328;  tribute  to 
Washington,  348 ;  Vice-Presi 
dent,  350,  362;  President,  379, 
382,  397,  455;  Jefferson-Burr 
contest,  382 ;  second  term,  439 ; 
declines  third  term,  453. 

Jones,  John  Paul,  258 ;  naval  ex 
ploits,  193;  death,  201. 

Jumonville,  N.  Coulon  de,  154. 

Kaskaskia,  captured  by  Clark, 
226. 

Kenton,  Simon,  in  the  wilder 
ness,  224. 

Kentucky  Resolutions,  363. 

King's  Mountain,  victory  of  the 
Americans  at,  207,  219. 

Knox,  General  Henry,  Secretary 
of  War,  318;  opposes  Hamilton 
as  head  of  the  army,  357. 

Kosciusko,  Tadeusz,  190. 

Labor,  status  of,  in  colonial  Vir 
ginia,  4. 

Lacey,  Edward,  at  King's  Moun 
tain,  208. 


529 


LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 


Lafayette,  aid  to  America,  190, 
324;  at  Yorktown,  214;  Jef 
ferson's  report  to,  on  the  condi 
tion  of  the  French  people,  262 ; 
sympathy  for  Monroe,  508; 
visit  to  Monticello,  x,  509. 

Lafreniere,  heads  revolt  of  Lou 
isiana  against  Spanish  rule, 
36. 

Laurens,  John,  at  Yorktown, 
216;  mission  to  France,  214; 
the  Rutledge  letter,  221. 

Lauzun,  Armand  Louis  de  Gon- 
taut,  216. 

Lee,  Francis  Lightfoot,  99,  105. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  Virginia 
Committee  of  Correspondence, 
100,  132;  First  Continental 
Congress,  109,  143,  283. 

Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  416. 

Lewis,  General,  defeats  the  In 
dians  on  the  Great  Kanawha, 
111. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  84,  186. 

Lincoln,  Levi,  Attorney-General, 
429. 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  the  Lou 
isiana  purchase,  411. 

Lobby,  the,  origin  of,  317. 

Logan,  chief  of  the  Mingoes,  re 
ply  of,  112. 

Logan,  Dr.,  voluntary  mission  to 
France,  359. 

Long  Island,  battle  of,   188. 

Louisiana  purchase,  the,  408. 

Louisiana,  revolt  in,  1764,  35. 

Lyon,  Matthew,  372 ;  attacked  by 
Griswold,  374;  Jefferson- Burr 
contest,  396 ;  the  Yazoo  frauds, 
425. 

McDuffie,  George,  on  the  North 
western  Territories,  408. 

McHenry,  James,  Secretary  of 
War,  377. 

Mclntosh,  Colonel  Lachlan,  138. 


Mackinaw,  Pontiac's  capture  of 
the  fort  at,  37. 

Maddox,  Joseph,  135. 

Madison,  James,  and  Harriet 
Martineau,  13;  religious  lib 
erty  in  Virginia,  18"0;  con 
trasted  with  Edmund  Ran 
dolph,  301 ;  Annapolis  Con 
vention,  292 ;  Constitutional 
Convention,  297 ;  Virginia 
Convention,  300;  Secretary  of 
State,  428;  War  of  1812,  470; 
the  Monroe  doctrine,  490. 

Marion,  General  Francis,  "  the 
Swamp  Fox,"  204. 

Marshall,  John,  Secretary  of 
State,  377;  Chief-Justice,  379, 
403 ;  the  trial  of  Aaron  Burr, 
450. 

Martin,  Alexander,  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  80. 

Martin,  Luther,  opposition  to  the 
Constitution,  299;  the  Chase 
impeachment,  404;  defense  of 
Burr,  451. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  and  James 
Madison,  13. 

Maryland,  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution,  299. 

Mason,  George,  Bill  of  Rights 
and  the  Virginia  Constitution 
of  1776,  142;  in  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention,  299. 

Maury,  Jesse,  x. 

Maury,  Rev.  James,  tutor  to  Jef 
ferson,  13,  50. 

Mazzei,  Jefferson's  letter  to,  346. 

Mecklenburg  Resolutions,   158. 

Mills,  Elijah,  opinion  of  John 
Randolph  of  Roanoke,  428. 

Miranda,  Hamilton's  intrigue 
with,  360,  378,  389,  413. 

Mississippi,  importance  of  the, 
408;  John  Jay's  treaty  with 
Spain  in  regard  to  the  Mis 
sissippi,  299. 


530 


INDEX 


Money  system,  Jefferson's  part  in 
introducing,  238. 

Monroe  doctrine,  489. 

Monroe,  James,  minister  to 
France,  352,  376;  recalled  from 
France,  355;  the  Louisiana 
purchase,  411;  the  Monroe 
doctrine,  489;  and  Lafayette 
508. 

Montgomery,  Richard,  Canadian 
campaign  and  death,  187. 

Monticello,  25,  71,  113,  243; 
home  life  at,  120,  340;  hos 
pitality  at,  466;  wedding  jour 
ney  to,  89 ;  return  from  France 
to,  275 ;  Hessian  prisoners  at, 
182;  Cornwallis's  raid,  214, 
233;  Lafayette's  visit  to,  x, 
509. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  originates 
money  system,  238;  minister 
to  France,  352;  death  of  Paul 
Jones,  201 ;  opinion  of  Burr 
and  Jefferson,  392;  at  Hamil 
ton's  death-bed,  437. 

Moultrie,  William,  defense  of 
Fort  Sullivan,  144;  the  Rut- 
ledge  letter,  221;  the  Genet 
episode,  325. 

Mount  Vernon,  xi. 

Musgroves'  Mills,  battle  at,  206, 
219. 

Napoleon,  plans  for  development 
of  Louisiana,  410. 

Navigation  laws,  31,  94. 

Navy,  Jefferson's  part  in  plan 
ning  the  United  States,  253. 

Nelson,  Thomas,  142;  Governor 
of  Virginia,  217. 

New  England,  influence  on  Unit 
ed  States  history,  vii;  attitude 
toward  War  of  1812,  472; 
secession  talk  in,  415,  455,  472, 
475. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  475. 


Newspapers,  modern  thirst  for, 
33. 

New  York,  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution,  304. 

Nicholas,  John,  letter  to  Wash 
ington,  347. 

Nicholas,  Robert  C.,  Virginia 
Committee  of  Correspondence, 
100. 

Norfolk,  destruction  of,  by  the 
British,  141. 

North  Carolina,  opposition  to  the 
Stamp  Act,  40;  revolt  in,  in 
1767-70,  73;  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  307. 

Northwestern  Territory,  ordi 
nance  of  the,  239. 

Notes  on  Virginia,  Jefferson's, 
235. 

Nullification,  Edmund  Randolph 
on,  364;  talk  of,  in  New  Eng 
land,  415,  455,  472,  475. 

Oconostata,  or  Ontassite,  Chero 
kee  chief,  9. 

Ohio  Land  Company,  150. 

Ontassite,  or  Oconostata,  Chero 
kee  chief,  9. 

Otis,  James,  opposition  to  the 
Stamp  Act,  41,  44. 

Page,  John,  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  87,  185,  217,  461. 

Paine,  Thomas,  publication  of 
"Common  Sense,"  141,  174; 
Indian  Commissioner,  284 ; 
Foreign  Secretary,  288;  the 
French  Revolution,  354;  Jef 
ferson's  letter  to,  402. 

Parker,  Sir  Hyde,  119. 

Parker,  Sir  Peter,  defeat  at  Fort 
Sullivan,  143. 

Parsons  case,  the,  Patrick  Hen 
ry  wins  the,  47,  50. 

Pearson,  Captain,  of  the  Serapis, 
196. 


531 


LIFE   AND  TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 


Peggy  Stewart,  burning  of  the, 
110. 

Pendleton,  Edmund,  Virginia 
Committee  of  Correspondence, 
100;  First  Continental  Con 
gress,  109 ;  revision  of  the  laws 
of  Virginia,  180. 

Pennsylvania,  tariff  act  of  1785, 
316. 

Pepys's  diary,  52. 

Pickering,  Judge,  impeached,  404. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  Secretary  of 
State,  357,  377. 

Pinckney,  C.  C.,  minister  to 
France,  355. 

Pinckney,  William,  57. 

Pocahontas,  420. 

Political  parties,  first,  330. 

Pontiac's  War,  37. 

Providence,  Paul  Jones's  ship, 
194. 

Pulaski,  Count,  190. 

Randolph,  Colonel  Peter,  46. 

Randolph,  Colonel  William,  5,  7. 

Randolph,  Dr.  William  Carey 
Nicholas,  great-grandson  of 
Jefferson,  x. 

Randolph,  Edmund,  56,  57,  275; 
Governor  of  Virginia,  295 ; 
Annapolis  Convention,  292, 
295 ;  Constitutional  Conven 
tion,  297 ;  Virginia  Convention, 
300;  contrasted  with  Madison, 
301 ;  trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  451. 

Randolph,  Isham,  grandfather  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  5. 

Randolph,  Jane.  See  JANE  (RAN 
DOLPH  JEFFERSON ) . 

Randolph,  John  (father  of  Ed 
mund  Randolph),  118;  home 
life,  293;  goes  with  Dunmore 
to  England,  119;  death,  120. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke, 
173  ;  character  and  career,  420  ; 
the  Chase  impeachment,  404, 


425;  break  with  Jefferson, 
427;  minister  to  Russia,  427; 
the  trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  452. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  46;  Virginia 
Committee  of  Correspondence, 
100;  First  Continental  Con 
gress,  109,  126;  death,  294. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Mann,  mar 
ries  Martha  Jefferson,  341. 

Ranger,  Paul  Jones's  ship,  194. 

Regulators,  organized  in  North 
Carolina,  73. 

Religion,  State,  in  Virginia,  177. 

Republican  party,  Jefferson's, 
330. 

Revolution,  the  American,  causes 
of,  27. 

Rhode  Island,  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  307. 

Richmond,  removal  of  capital  to, 
502. 

Rochambeau,  Count,  216. 

Rosewell,  home  of  John  Page, 
185. 

Rutledge,  Edward,  battle  of 
Fort  Sullivan,  145. 

Rutledge,  John,  134,  163,  220. 

Saratoga,  battle  of,  190. 

Secession,  talk  of,  in  New  Eng 
land,  415,  455,  472,  475. 

Sedition  laws,  362,  376. 

Serapis,  Paul  Jones's  fight  with 
the,  195. 

Shadwell,  home  of  Peter  Jeffer 
son,  5,  120;  burned,  70. 

Shays's  Rebellion,  291. 

Skelton,  Mrs.  Martha,  married 
to  Jefferson,  87.  See  JEFFER 
SON,  MARTHA. 

Slavery,  in  colonial  Virginia,  4; 
Jefferson's  attitude  toward, 
65,  160,  181 ;  attitude  of  Vir 
ginia  toward,  66;  beneficent 
results  of,  66,  94;  compromise 
on,  in  the  Constitution,  298. 


532 


INDEX 


Small,    Dr.,    favorite    professor,       University  of  Virginia,  114,  486. 


18. 

Smith,  John,  colonization  of  Vir 
ginia,  279. 

Smith,  Robert,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  429. 

Social  equality  in  colonial  Vir 
ginia,  3. 

Spain,  John  Jay's  treaty  with, 
299. 

Stamp  Act  Congress  of  1765,  123. 

Stamp  Act,  passage  of  the,  39; 
opposition  to,  73,  134;  re 
pealed,  60,  70 ;  effect  of  repeal 
in  the  colonies,  70. 

Steuben,  Baron,  190. 

Stewart,  Anthony,  burning  of  the 
Peggy  Stewart,  110. 

Summary  View  of  the  Rights 
of  British  America,  prepared 
by  Jefferson,  107. 

Sumpter,  General  Thomas,  "  the 
Game-Cock,"  204. 


Talleyrand,  X.  Y.  Z.  despatches, 
356,  358. 

Tariff,  beginning  of  the,  315; 
Jefferson's  views  on  the,  495. 

Tarleton,  Sir  Bannastre,  in  the 
South,  205,  210;  battle  of  Cow- 
pens,  212;  raid  on  Virginia, 
233. 

Tazewell  Hall,  home  of  the  Ran 
dolphs,  293. 

Tea-Party,  Boston,  104,  147. 

Tea  tax,  the,  60,  65,  70. 

Tennessee,  beginnings  of,  10. 

Tithes  in  Virginia,  work  of  Jef 
ferson  to  abolish,  166. 

Tories,  as  a  political  party,  330. 

Trenton,  battle  of,  190. 

Tripoli,  negotiations  with,  247; 
war  with,  418,  479. 

Tryon,  William,  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  73. 


Valley  Forge,  Washington  at, 
189. 

Vergennes,  Charles  Gravier, 
French  aid  to  colonists,  287. 

Vincennes,  George  Rogers  Clark 
at,  228;  retaken  by  the  Brit 
ish,  229. 

Virginia,  first  settlement  of,  279 ; 
resolutions  against  the  Stamp 
Act,  40;  resolutions  of  1765, 
effect  of,  60;  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  299. 

Virginia  courts,  the,  280. 

Waddell,  Hugh,  83. 

War  of  1812,  401,  445,  470. 

Washington,  George,  xi,  129; 
character,  148;  bravery,  191; 
education,  2;  marriage,  153; 
as  a  soldier,  150;  land  sur 
veyor,  150;  in  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses,  63 ;  service  with 
Braddock,  9,  154;  First  Conti 
nental  Congress,  109;  Henry's 
march  on  Williamsburg,  84, 
124;  made  Commander-in- 
chief,  147,  187;  at  Yorktown, 
215;  lays  down  commission, 
238 ;  Annapolis  Convention, 
292,  295;  Constitutional  Con 
vention,  297;  President,  307, 
430;  Cabinet  officers,  310,  332; 
negotiations  with  Morocco, 
251;  the  Genet  episode,  326; 
feeling  toward  the  French 
Revolution,  265 ;  letter  in  re 
gard  to  Jefferson's  resignation, 
334;  last  years  of  his  adminis 
tration,  346 ;  Mazzei  and  Nich 
olas  letters,  346;  threatened 
war  with  France,  356;  death, 
348. 

Washington,  William,  at  Cow- 
pens,  213. 


533 


LIFE  AND   TIMES   OF  JEFFERSON 


Washington  city,  318;  British 
raid  on,  476. 

Watson,  Thomas,  135. 

Wayles,  John,  father  of  Jeffer 
son's  wife,  88;  death,  91. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  takes  Stony 
Point,  190. 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  the  North 
western  Territories,  409. 

Wesley,  John,  on  American  Inde 
pendence,  131. 

West  Point,  Military  Academy 
at,  403. 

Whigs,  as  a  political  party,  330. 

Whisky  Rebellion,  292,  345. 

Whitney,  Eli,  inventor  of  cotton- 
gin,  338. 

Wilkinson,  Jame$.-the  Burr  jcon- 
spiracy,  448£v.  «j. 

William  and  Mary  College,  14. 

Williamsburg,  •  social  life  in,  in 
colonial  days,  14. 

Wirt,     William,     57;     trial     of 


Aaron  Burr,  452;  War  of 
1812,  476. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  in  Adams's  Cab 
inet,  377;  the  Jefferson-Burr 
contest,  385. 

Woodford,  Colonel,  skirmish  near 
Norfolk,  140. 

Wright,  Sir  James,  Governor  of 
Georgia,  133;  returns  to  Eng 
land,  139. 

Wyoming  Valley,  dispute  over 
the,  291. 

Wythe,  George,  Jefferson's  pre 
ceptor  in  the  law,  18,  20;  the 
Virginia  Resolutions,  49;  re 
vision  of  the  Virginia  laws, 
180. 

•3t  Y.^Z.  despatches^  356. 

Yazoo  frauds,  the,  425. 
Yorfctowfy"  founded,'!;   siege  of, 
212. 


(2) 


THE  END 


534 


vc 


50976" 


.5484)4185 


LOAN  DEPT. 


»  da,e  du, 
immediate  recalJ. 


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